


destiny - not a thing to be waited for; a thing to be achieved

by Anonymous



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Multi, Nonbinary Cedar Wood, Nonbinary Courtly Jester, Nonbinary Faybelle Thorn, Nonbinary Humphrey Dumpty, Nonbinary Kitty Cheshire, Nonbinary Raven Queen, Trans Man Alistair Wonderland, Trans Woman Ginger Breadhouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:16:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25246741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A peek into every student's life, and how they deal with their destinies.Most of them don't want them. Some do.All of them are trapped.
Relationships: Ashlynn Ella/Hunter Huntsman, Briar Beauty/Faybelle Thorn, Bunny Blanc/Alistair Wonderland, Bunny Blanc/Madeline "Maddie" Hatter, C.A. Cupid/Blondie Lockes, Cerise Hood/Cedar Wood, Chase Redford/Alistair Wonderland, Darling Charming/Apple White, Dexter Charming/Humphrey Dumpty, Ginger Breadhouse/Holly O'Hair, Hopper Croakington II/Farrah Goodfairy, Jillian Beanstalk/Nina Thumbell, Kitty Cheshire/Lizzie Hearts, Meeshell Mermaid/Melody Piper, Poppy O'Hair/Duchess Swan, Ramona Badwolf/Justine Dancer, Rosabella Beauty/Daring Charming
Comments: 28
Kudos: 151
Collections: Anonymous





	destiny - not a thing to be waited for; a thing to be achieved

**Author's Note:**

> basically what i did here was shuffle all the characters at random on wheel decide, and then i went to a random word generator, so that's why each character has a word at the start of their story that i based their part around. the song lyrics were all my choosing though, and i would def recommend every song mentioned in this fic :)

**Apple White -** **_blood_ **

  
  


**_When she was just a girl // She expected the world // But it flew away from her reach // So she ran away in her sleep_ **

**_“Paradise” - Coldplay_ **

  
  


Lips as red as blood.

That’s what Apple White has, just like her mother before her. Snow White’s lips are a symbol of beauty, as red as the poisoned apple she’d once eaten, and they are powerful. Rousing speeches, new laws, declarations of war have issued from those lips. They‘re Snow’s weapon, her blessing, her leverage.

They are Apple’s curse. She was always meant to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Be poisoned by Raven, be kissed and woken up by Daring, rule the kingdom as the perfect queen with her perfect husband, the king.

She used to want that for herself. She wanted it more than anything because she had never been told she was allowed to have anything else. She had hated Raven for refusing to sign the Storybook of Legends, had hated the Rebels for daring to choose their own destinies.

Now, she understands. Because Raven _isn’t_ evil. Because Daring _isn’t_ her true love. Because Apple had gone under and woken up to Darling Charming leaning above her, not her supposed prince. 

Darling had succeeded where her brother had failed, and this is what pulls Apple to reality. 

She is not supposed to love a _girl._ She’s a _damsel,_ meant to be woken by a _man’s_ kiss of true love. 

Needless to say, Apple goes through a bit of a crisis. She really tries to convince herself that Daring was the one who woke her up, and obviously he’s still trying to prove himself to her, and maybe neither of them would have to do this at all if _destiny_ didn’t _force_ them to, and - 

For the first time in her life, Apple starts to question her fate. Destiny used to be her favorite word. It meant peace, and true love and a happily ever after, and Apple would’ve given anything to preserve it.

Now, it means almost nothing to her. She continues to date Daring to keep up appearances, pretends not to notice her friends’ sympathetic glances, and Darling’s woeful looks, the way she avoids Apple in the halls. Apple can’t notice any of these things - they aren’t what her life was supposed to give her.

Apple plasters on a fake smile, raises her hand in a false wave, and shoulders through it all. She’s got absolutely no other choice.

All this suppression and fear and pressure and anger build up, though, as those things always do, and one night Apple just blows.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she sobs to Raven, her enemy, her sister, her friend. “Tell me what to do, Raven.”

Raven shushes her, holds her gently, and rubs her back in soothing circles.

“I think the only thing you _can_ do is follow your heart. Be with Darling,” they say.

“But I can’t,” Apple cries. “I can’t do that - I’m not supposed to do that. My _destiny -_ “

“Apple,” Raven says. “I was supposed to be an evil villain, and look how that turned out. Don’t you understand what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time? Destiny isn’t real - no one can control our lives but ourselves, and we should have the freedom to do that.”

“But - But - “ Apple breaks down again.

“Shhh,” Raven says. “I know.”

Good _Grimm,_ Apple spent so long holding out for her promised future and trying to disparage Raven from gaining theirs, and she never should have done it, she never _would_ have done it if she knew that this is how it would turn out. Apple White, the daughter of Snow White, princess and fairest in the land only after her mother, is a...

A Rebel. Something she’s never wanted to be. 

And now it’s the only thing she feels she can be.

She and Daring never officially break up. But they stop trying. And Daring clearly only has eyes for Rosabella Beauty - and Apple is perfectly ok with that. 

She still loves Daring. She thinks some part of her always will. He’s her friend and being betrothed to someone your whole life means you get to know them pretty well. So when Apple tells Daring her secret, he smiles and nods, hugs her and tells her,

“Good luck.”

Apple has never needed luck before in her life, but now it’s the only thing she has left to cling to.

She stays behind in the Princessology room after last period, waits as the other students filter out, and grabs Darling’s wrist before she can go.

“Apple, what is this about?” Darling asks, not meeting her eyes. “I have to get back to my dorm, I have homework - “

“Please,” Apple begs. “I’m sorry.”

Darling swallows. “What are you sorry for?”

Apple shakes her head. “What do you think? I’ve been pathetic. You saved my life during the Dragon Games. I mean, you literally rescued me out of death’s clutches, and I haven’t thanked you once.”

Darling fidgets. “You don’t have to. It was CPR. Anyone could have done it.”

“Could Daring have done it?” Apple asks. “Look, I’m really, _really_ sorry, Darling. I know I’ve treated you terribly. You probably want nothing to do with me anymore. And I respect that. I just want you to know that - “ Her breath hitches. “I love you.”

Darling takes Apple’s hand, presses it to her chest, and Apple can feel her heart beating there, and she feels it until her own heartbeat syncs in time with it. “I love you, too. Can I kiss you? For real this time.”

Apple’s stomach bursts into a cloud of butterflies, and she says, 

“ _Yes._ ”

Apple’s father hadn’t been as thrilled as he should’ve been when he’d woken Snow up, but she’d married him all the same. Why is it that the woman is helpless, in need of saving, and the man gets to walk away with a shiny new wife as a reward for doing the bare minimum?

The king treats Snow like a prize. Snow treats the king like a puppet, using those blood-red lips of hers to command kingdoms, fell empires, build worlds, raze cities to the ground.

What would she say if she knew about Darling? Would she reprimand Apple for not following her destiny? Would she accept her for loving who she chooses to, not who fate tells her she must?

All Apple knows is that her bloody, bloody lips are a curse. 

But Darling seems to kiss all of that away.

  
  
  


**Holly O’Hair -** **_cigarette_ **

  
  


**_Maybe I should try harder // You should lower your expectations_ **

**_“Prom Queen” - Beach Bunny_ **

  
  


Princesses aren’t supposed to smoke.

Holly does anyway.

It’s an ADHD thing, she guesses. or something like it, anyway. Maybe it’s part of an oral fixation she didn’t know she had. Whatever it is, it soothes her. It calms her down when she’s at her worst. It gives her something to focus on, something for her lips to wrap around and her fingers to curl over when she desperately craves a distraction, a break.

She started young. She was twelve years old. She was the older twin (or so she thought) of a pair that wasn’t supposed to exist - Poppy was the younger O’Hair sister (she wasn’t), so she got off scot-free. Holly got all the pressure. 

As far as fairytale parents go, Rapunzel’s no Evil Queen. Far from it. But she, like most princesses, is a sucker for tradition: Holly (technically Poppy, but no one needs to know that) is going to follow in her footsteps. She’s going to be the next Rapunzel, which is why she keeps her hair long and her options open, and trains herself not to be afraid of heights because she’ll have to spend a good part of her life locked up in a tower. Away from Poppy. Away from all her friends.

Yeah, that’ll be fun. 

After years of etiquette classes and hair-care lessons (all of them mandatory for Holly, optional for Poppy, who went anyway in support (Holly loves her sister)), it just became too much. Holly was in her father’s study one day and found a box of the cigarettes he so frequently smelled like. And that had been it for her - she hasn’t gone back since.

The nicotine in her brain, the smoke in her lungs, the tickle in her throat, the sickly-sweet smell; they give Holly room to breathe, even though each smoke break suffocates her more and more. She takes them in between classes, in the bathrooms, behind the hair salon, outside the window while her sister is asleep.

Poppy knows. Holly knows that she knows. Holly hasn’t exactly been trying to hide her addiction, especially now that they’re at school and not at home. Poppy doesn’t say anything. She might someday, but for now, she doesn’t, which is good. Holly doesn’t want her to. 

_Princesses don’t smoke._ That’s an unspoken rule, and Holly knows that if Milton Grimm ever found out, she’d be in a world of trouble. 

But she’s already meant to be in one. A witch will steal her away, and she will live in a tower until her prince comes to save her.

Holly used to like the idea of a prince. That was before she met Ginger. Now all she knows is pink hair, and soft skin, and the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg and all other baking ingredients, always overpowering, canceling out the smell of smoke.

Ginger does say something. She offers to help Holly with her problem. Tells her to try and cut it down to only smoking three a day, for starters, if she can. 

Holly can. For Ginger, she can do anything. 

Maybe she resents Poppy for staying silent. Maybe she resents Rapunzel for forcing her to be someone she’s not. Maybe she resents her father for leaving those stupid fucking cigarettes out in the open in the first place.

Holly hopes there’ll be smokes in that tower. And if there isn’t, then she hopes the one who comes to save her will have pink hair and smell of cinnamon. 

  
  
  


**Meeshell Mermaid -** **_teacher_ **

  
  


**_You don’t have to sing it right // But who could call you wrong? // To put your emptiness to melody // Your awful heart to song_ **

**_“To Noise Making (Sing)” - Hozier_ **

  
  


Meeshell dislikes her story at first because she is supposed to die at the end.

She knows this. She understands that Mother is gone, that Meeshell never knew her for a reason. She understands that Father thinks it’s Meeshell’s fault that her mother is gone. She understands this in the way that he hurts her and tells her she’s worthless, in the way that he holds her too tight and tells her she’s his and only his, the last thing he has left of Mother.

When Meeshell is finally old enough to go to Ever After High, she is glad for the escape. She is glad that it’s a boarding school, too, so she doesn’t have to go home to her seaside kingdom and her two-faced father every night. She is glad that she has a place where she can finally sing.

Because that’s all that she’s ever wanted to do: sing. According to the servants, Mother had the most enchanting singing voice any of them had ever heard, and Meeshell wants to honor her memory.

Father had beaten the singing out of her. He had said it had reminded him too much of his lost love. And Meeshell had kept her mouth closed. In fear, in pity. In obedience.

Father only seems to care about the _singing_ bringing painful memories. He has no problem with Meeshell’s _body,_ and he tells her she looks just like her mother, _just like your mother, you sweet thing._

When he says and does these things, Meeshell starts to think that maybe she’s blessed to have the story that she has. That maybe dying won’t be so bad, and she can finally meet Mother when she goes. She can’t reflect this mantra in any physical scars; Father would notice. So it all stays internal, in her mind, when she bathes, when she sleeps, when she swims in the ocean, the one place her father cannot follow her.

And Meeshell is afraid that when she carries out her destiny, her child will have the same problems with the man Meeshell is meant to love.

So when she enrolls at Ever After High, and Raven Queen does not sign the Storybook of Legends, Meeshell is overjoyed to find that there’s another way out. A way that doesn’t include a broken heart and a knife and her body turning to sea foam.

Despite this, she keeps quiet. She has a few friends, but they don’t really understand her - she’s the silent girl, the mysterious mermaid, destined to die, and that’s all she’ll ever be to them. 

She doesn’t sing in front of people. Years of having her music slapped, forced out of her have caused her to feel self-conscious. She doesn’t want anyone to hear her. She’s afraid they’ll react the same way Father does. So she sneaks away to the shady part of the lake at night, when she’s supposed to be in bed, and sings, slow and mournfully and in only the way a mermaid can.

And one day Melody finds her. She notices that Meeshell disappears at night, walking past her and Ginger Breadhouse’s dorm, so she follows Meeshell to the lake, and listens.

“I'm sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. You just sound so clear.”

Meeshell stares at Melody, horror-stricken. “No, I don’t. I’m _awful._ I’m a disgrace to my mother’s memory.”

Melody frowns. Blinks slowly. “I think you have the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard.”

That is the night that Meeshell falls in love with Melody Piper, and the night that she begins to refuse her story.

Meeshell swallows. “No one’s ever said that before.”

“Well, I’m saying it now.” Melody seats herself on the rock ledge right above Meeshell and dangles her legs over the edge. 

“Teach me.”

“What?”

“Teach me,” Melody says, shrugging. “I know about music, but only the instrumental kind. I could learn a lot from you.”

And Meeshell teaches her. She teaches Melody about vibrato and breath support, harmonies and range, and Melody harmonizes so well with Meeshell in the nights that follow that Meeshell falls in love with her all over again every time.

She decides once more that she hates her story. She doesn’t want to die as long as Melody is still alive.

“I’m sorry,” Melody tells her, their hands entwined beneath the sheets, on a day when Farrah isn’t in the room she and Meeshell share. “For everything that bastard did to you. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him, and I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Meeshell says back. “And you won’t kill him.”

“Meeshell - “

“ _I will._ ”

  
  
  


**Daring Charming -** **_cut_ **

  
  


**_And maybe I’m wrong // And I’m just another prodigal, and cynical son, wrong // And I need to wake up, wake up, wake up // Would someone tell me how come I can’t find my equilibrium?_ **

**_“Prodigal Son” - Rationale_ **

  
  


Daring is a prince. Princes are perfect.

Princes are valiant, humble, brave. They’re powerful, and they use their power for good, slaying dragons, saving damsels, the works. Princes are idolized, looked up to, worshipped, and Daring is meant to be all of those things.

Never mind that Snow White’s husband had a child with the Evil Queen. Never mind that Duchess Swan’s father is a cold and ruthless warlord. Never mind the rumors that the Sea King hasn’t been the same since his mermaid lover died. Never mind that Daring’s own father beats his wife, beats his children. 

Never mind any of that. According to the stories, to Headmaster Grimm, to the Storybook of Legends, prince’s are perfect. And Daring _must_ be perfect.

Daring isn’t being completely truthful: Dad doesn’t beat him. Dad beats everyone _but_ him. Because according to Dad, Daring is his wonder child, and the others are his mistakes. Dexter is too weak and Darling was supposed to be a boy and Mom, Mom is pointless. A nobody noblewoman without a fairytale that Dad got stuck with because _someone_ had to continue the Charming line, even if all the good princesses were taken. 

Daring lets it happen. He lets his father hurt them because he doesn’t know how to stop it and because a small and twisted part of him relishes in the attention his father gives him.

And there are other princes, there are other Charmings, but Daring’s family are _the_ Charmings, and they have an important pretense to keep up. They smile at public events, wave to the crowd. Dad kisses Mom on the cheek like he hadn’t slapped her across it minutes before, and Mom laughs when he does it like the perfect wife is meant to. Daring and his siblings look pretty for the crowd, as pretty as they possibly can for teenagers. 

Daring knows he’s good-looking. He’s a little afraid of that fact. 

That’s why his dad likes him the most. Because Daring’s the perfect child, the eldest triplet, the one who takes naturally to the sword and the shield.

_(Darling does too, maybe even more so than Daring, but Dad ignores her)_

_(Dexter hardly takes at all)_

People swoon when they see Daring. Dad boasts that he’s got the _true charm of a Charming._ Daring smiles, nods.

He hates it. 

He’s the pretty one, so he gets all the attention. He throws himself into his destiny, meets Apple White at a young age, and is told that he’ll marry her someday, so he prepares for that fact. 

“You’ll be just like your old man,” Dad says, but Daring would never lay a hand on Apple. She’s too beautiful.

He’s not in love with her. He’s supposed to be, but he isn’t, no matter how hard he tries. And he suspects she feels the same. They keep up appearances at home, at school, but neither of them feels anything, and they know it. 

_It’s fine,_ Daring figures. _We’ll fall in love when we’re older, when our story begins. Just like we’re supposed to._

But then Daring tries kissing Apple, and nothing happens. And when his sister wakes up the girl that was supposed to be Daring’s whole future, he starts to crumble from the inside out.

His whole life, everything up to this moment, has been a complete lie. Not one thing Dad told him had been the truth. Daring had endured years of watching the people he loved get hurt for nothing.

He realizes that it wasn’t that he didn’t know how to stop his father. It’s that he was too afraid to. 

So the bravery thing doesn’t check out, either.

Daring is no _prince._

This is when he starts to cut. Nowhere noticeable, just on his thighs, really. But deep. Very deep. Because he isn’t perfect, because he’s spent so long letting people get hurt so he wouldn’t be, and now he deserves all the pain his mother and siblings felt, and worse.

He’s lucky Hopper is such a light sleeper because if anyone found out, Daring wouldn’t know what to do.

His life is a long twisting path of shadows and lies and moments where he should have spoken up but didn’t. He’s brave enough to fight monsters, but he isn’t brave enough to defend the people he loves. It’s almost pointless to be living. He doesn’t even have a princess.

Until Rosabella Beauty walks into his life. 

She’s not textbook pretty. She’s not ugly, but she’s fairly plain compared to Ashlynn or Briar. She’s got glossy hair and neutral clothes, and she hides behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.

She is the most beautiful woman Daring has ever seen in his life, and he’s pretty sure he falls in love with her on the spot.

He’s never been in love before. This is what he was _supposed_ to feel for Apple. He feels it for Rosabella instead. How could he not?

When Dad finds out that Daring is meant to be the next Beast, not Apple’s Prince Charming, he’ll be livid. 

So Daring leaves more scars in preparation.

Rosabella finds them. Hopper is out of the room, and Rosabella is suddenly in, and she’s staring sadly at Daring’s legs. 

“Oh,” she says.

“ _I’m sorry,_ ” Daring sobs.

She touches him. “You have _nothing_ to apologize for.”

She takes Daring’s dagger, bandages up his wounds, and kisses every single scar on Daring’s legs. She tells him that no one is perfect, and that’s ok.

That’s when the cuts start to hurt less. 

And that’s when Daring swears to himself that his father will never lay a hand on the people Daring loves again. 

  
  
  


**Sparrow Hood -** **_addicted_ **

  
  


**_Come on and kick me // You’ve got your problems_ **

**_“Hash Pipe” - Weezer_ **

  
  


Sparrow Hood is addicted and to more than one thing.

He’s addicted to attention, for one. His Pop was always so cool, swooping in and stealing from the rich, taking it back to give to the needy. _Everyone_ loved Robin Hood. He was an all-around kind of guy. And Sparrow’s supposed to be just like him, so he plays his guitar loud and talks about things that he probably shouldn’t so that people never forget that he’s there. He talks and talks and talks and talks, always has something to say, because if he doesn’t, then why’s he here, anyway?

He’s addicted to music. He loves the way his guitar sounds when he whales power chord after power chord on it, can’t get enough of the feeling of his fingers dancing up and down the frets. Pop had taught Sparrow how to play, where to press his fingers, the right rhythms to strum. It had hurt Sparrow’s fingertips like hell at first, and he’d whined and complained about it nonstop. Pop had just smiled and said, _Like most things, it’ll get better with time._ And after a while, Sparrow’s fingers had blistered over. Now whenever he plays, he plays for Pop, and for his memory.

He’s addicted to Duchess Swan. Not in like, he wants her to be his _girl_ or anything. But Duchess is Sparrow’s best friend; she’s got an air about her that Sparrow just loves, even if everyone else hates it. She’s strong-willed, quick-witted, and she doesn’t take shit from anybody. When people call her a bitch, she just turns up her nose at them. Sparrow gets it. People call him an annoying jackass all the time - he doesn’t care. He’s doing what Pop always did: living life to the fullest.

Which is sadly ironic, ‘cause Pop didn’t get to live that long. It’s only been three years since it happened, but it feels like just yesterday that Pop was lifting a younger Sparrow up onto his shoulders and dancing around the room with him, as Little John sang a happy tune, and Mama clapped and laughed along with the music.

There’s one more thing that Sparrow’s addicted to, and it’s the most important of all: the truth. He doesn’t like when people lie to him, when people are sneaky (his father’s history of lying was the only thing Sparrow disliked about him), so when he starts to realize that there’s no way Pop could have drowned in the tub in his sleep because Pop never took naps, he enlists the help of Duchess to get to the bottom of it.

“Whatever,” Duchess says, rolling her eyes. “I guess I don’t have anything better to do over the summer holidays.” 

Translation: she’s totally in and _totally_ psyched about it. 

They poke around in Pop’s old study first. Mama’s out at the market, and Sparrow doesn’t want her to know what they’re doing. She’s been so frail ever since Pop died, so ready to cry at the drop of a hat. She doesn’t even let Little John come over for dinner anymore. If she found out what Sparrow and Duchess were doing, she’d flip. Or maybe just sob a lot.

So it’s in secret that they find the letters, addressed to Robin Hood, written in Little John’s handwriting, stuffed in a secret compartment that Duchess finds in the desk. And it’s there that Sparrow learns something he maybe should have figured out a long time ago.

“Dude,” Duchess says, eyes blown wide. “Your dad was _in love_ with Little John.” 

“Yeah,” Sparrow says numbly, staring at the stack of love letters. “I know.”

“But why’d he marry your mother, then?” Duchess asks. “If he loved his best friend so much.”

“I’ll tell you _why,_ ” a voice says from the doorway. Duchess squawks. Sparrow drops the letters in surprise. It’s Mama. She’s grinning shakily, eyes twitching uneasily. Sparrow’s never seen her like this before.

“He was afraid,” Mama says, voice wavering. “Afraid of what people would say if they knew about him and Little John. So he married me. He made me believe that he really loved me. He _lied_ to me. And when I found out, after years of a loveless marriage and a child who was _so_ much like him, I did the only thing I could.”

“ _You killed him,_ ” Duchess says, terror lacing every word.

Maid Marian smiles wide. “I strangled him in the bathtub. Little John broke my heart by loving my husband. I broke Little John’s by killing him.”

Sparrow chokes. He’s spiraling. This can’t be real, this can’t be _true,_ this can’t be _happening._ “ _How could you._ ”

Mama spreads her arms like she wants Sparrow to give her a hug. “You’re too much like him. You wouldn’t understand.” 

“ _You - You - You’re not my mother!_ ” Sparrow screams and grabs the first thing within reach. A letter opener. He throws it at her.

It lodges in her shoulder. She pulls it out, and Sparrow watches as blood splatters the floorboards and Maid Marian just laughs and laughs and laughs. 

Once the police Duchess had discreetly called have carted Marian away, Sparrow collapses, weeping, into Duchess’s arms. He’s needed for questioning, he knows, but he just can’t bring himself to leave the study, the letters clutched tightly in his fist. And Duchess doesn’t scoff at him. She just rubs his back and apologizes to him over and over and over again.

Sparrow realizes that day that everyone is addicted to something: Duchess to the spotlight. Little John to Robin Hood. Pop to lying. Maid Marian to revenge.

And Sparrow to - 

He isn’t even sure anymore.

To hope? That his life will go better than either of his parents’ did? 

He doesn’t know. For once, Sparrow doesn’t have anything to say.

  
  
  


**Lizzie Hearts -** **_poem_ **

  
  


**_We once were like two turtle doves // On a bough up in the blue // I never knew what love could do // My dear ’til I met you_ **

**_“Two Turtle Doves” - Alana Henderson_ **

  
  


Lizzie Hearts is not a tyrant, and she is not a bitch.

She’s been called both, many different times, by many different people. So has her mother. It’s the price that comes with being a princess, a queen - your subjects are always judging you. 

Lizzie hears more of it at Ever After. Or at least, she hears more of it there, because, at school, there are no guards, no one to separate her from the commoners, no one to cover her ears and shield her from criticisms, because she’s the princess, a _dainty little thing_ that must be protected. 

Lizzie is anything but _dainty_. She gets that from her mother. And she lets the other students know this. So even if they call her a bitch, she doesn’t let them see that it hurts her.

Lizzie never knew her father - she doesn’t even know who he was. Mother doesn’t like to talk about him. _Too painful,_ she says. Mother has always been a queen without a king, content to rule that way forever. The most Lizzie has gotten out of her is that her father blew in through a rabbit hole in a strange balloon, stayed with the Queen of Hearts just long enough before leaving. He hasn’t been back since. He probably doesn’t even know that he has a daughter.

Lizzie resents this unknown man for that. For not caring enough about her mother, about her. He must not have had an ounce of love in his body. 

Lizzie has love. For her mother, for her friends. In Wonderland, things are simple. In Wonderland, things make sense, but only if you’re a Wonderlandian. Otherwise, they’re positively preposterous. 

But at Ever After High, where it’s not just Mother and Maddie and Bunny and Kitty and Alistair, where it’s other people, too, no one cares for Lizzie. They know who she is. They know what she will become. They fear her when she’s there. They laugh at her when she’s not. Lizzie knows. Lizzie hates that it hurts her.

She’s a princess. She’s meant to be the next _Queen of Hearts!_ She has no time for this _drivel._ Her skin is thick as diamonds - but the comments sink in anyway.

Lizzie channels her insecurities through her power - she stares intimidatingly and screams _Off with their head!_ as loud and as often as she can. And she likes it. 

Kitty likes it, too. They tell her so, grinning slyly. So at least Kitty likes it.

No one else seems to. Lizzie is a poem, a poem that no one normal can read because she’s written in a Wonderlandian tongue. Her friends understand, but no one else wants to try.

Daring did. Daring Charming did, and Lizzie thought that he might care for her, that she could love him. But she’s seen the way he looks at Rosabella Beauty. And they haven’t talked in...a long time. Long enough that it’s clear that Daring forgot about her.

Or maybe he hates her. Maybe he’s scared of her.

There’s a poem in Lizzie’s locker. Another inside her desk. One pinned to her skirt, one tucked into her crown. She has no idea how they get there, but they all say things, sweet things, _wonderful_ things about Lizzie’s hair. Her smile. Her clothes. Her personality. 

They aren’t signed. Lizzie doesn’t try to find out who’s sending them, at first. It’s just enough for her to get a daily dose of self-confidence. Knowing the writer’s identity would spoil everything. 

But they come more and more often, in larger quantities, and Lizzie refuses to throw any of them away. She brings them back to her dorm and stashes them in her desk until Duchess starts to complain that the notes are overflowing onto her side of the room, and that’d she _better_ go to Cupid, or Duchess is requesting a roommate transfer.

So Lizzie goes to Cupid, shows her the notes, and tells her how they make her feel. 

“Do you have any clue who this person could be?” Cupid asks. 

Lizzie shakes her head. “I have no idea.” 

“Have you ever had a crush on anyone here?”

Lizzie blushes. “I thought perhaps Daring...but it wouldn’t be him.”

“No,” Cupid says. “It wouldn’t be.”

Lizzie pulls out a particular note, the one she’s kept tucked in the band of her crown since she found it there. “This one’s my favorite.”

“A poem,” Cupid says, smiling. “How romantic.”

It says:

_dark hair. pale skin._

_that voice. that smile._

_you command armies._

_you build worlds._

_if i could only breathe in your hair, kiss your sweet skin, mingle your voice with mine, smile when you do, and bask in the glory of you, you, you._

_but instead, i am here. you are perfect, and i am here._

_invisible._

Cupid looks at the paper wistfully. “It’s pretty.”

Lizzie flushes again. “I know.”

“And I know who it’s from.”

“What?” Lizzie exclaims. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it,” Cupid says. “Whoever wrote it said they feel invisible.”

Lizzie frowns “Invisible...?”

Kitty.

“Oh!” she says. “Oh, I’ve been a _fool!_ I should’ve understood.”

Cupid grins. “We all come to our senses in time. Love’s different for everyone.”

Lizzie stands, gathering the cards back in her arms. “Thank you, Cupid. Thank you, thank you, _thank you._ ”

“It’s not a problem, Lizzie. Good luck.”

Maybe some people like Lizzie. Maybe Lizzie is too quick to push them away.

She finds herself in the woods, searching for the only person Lizzie wants to see right now. “Kitty! Kitty Cheshire!”

They appear, hanging upside down from a tree branch. “Hey, Lizzie. What’s up? Or should I say, _what’s down?_ ”

They see what Lizzie’s carrying, and fall and land on their feet.

“Oh.”

“ _Kitty_ ,” Lizzie says breathlessly.

“I’m sorry,” Kitty says quickly. “It was all just a joke. I know princesses don’t like silly cats. I didn’t mean it.”

Lizzie’s heart breaks. “Yes, you did. I’m sorry I couldn’t see it before.”

“No,” Kitty says, eyes darting around, searching for a way out. “It was - it was - “

“Kitty.” Lizzie lets the card fall to the forest floor, steps closer. “Touch me.”

Kitty swallows. “ _Yeah,_ ” they say, and kiss Lizzie hard. Lizzie kisses back harder.

She leans her forehead against Kitty’s. “Thank you.”

Kitty hums. “Why?”

“For reading me. And for understanding me.”

Kitty grins a Cheshire grin, kisses Lizzie quick on the lips. “Thank _you_ for not making me feel invisible.”

Lizzie Hearts is not a tyrant, and she is not a bitch. She is a poem, and someone understands her.

She is a princess and a future queen, and she’s going to love Kitty Cheshire forever after and longer even than that. 

  
  
  


**Hopper Croakington II -** **_wander_ **

  
  


**_Don’t take me tongue tied // Don’t wave me goodbye // Don’t break_ **

**_“Tongue Tied” - Grouplove_ **

  
  


Hopper’s issue is that he doesn’t have a princess.

There’s no one who’s on track to be the next Frog Princess. There’s no girl at Ever After that’s been raised her whole life to be Hopper’s true love, the one who turns him permanently into a man. As far as he knows, she doesn’t exist.

But she must, because according to Headmaster Grimm, everyone has their part to play. So there has to be _someone_ with Hopper on her page of the Storybook of Legends.

There are miscellaneous princesses here and there, but they’re not who Hopper wants his true love to be. 

Because he knows it couldn’t be Briar. It could _never_ be Briar. She has a completely different destiny, with a completely different prince, and she’s going to be asleep for a century. Hopper’s tale will happen way before that, and by the time Briar wakes up, Hopper will probably be dead. 

But he wants it to be Briar because Briar is the prettiest girl he’s ever met. She wears cool clothes and throws fun parties and makes Hopper’s insecurities disappear for just a second when he’s near here. 

Of course, if he tries to talk to her, he ends up turning into a frog. He and Cupid have tried so many times to woo Briar in so many different ways, but it never works. 

Briar tells him she’s sorry, but she doesn’t feel the same way.

He understands. Only after turning into a frog and performing some over-dramatic monologue about it. Briar just laughs, but not unkindly.

Hopper falls in love too easily, and no one ever likes him back. He doesn’t have a princess, so his heart wanders in other directions, latching on to every girl he sees, always disappointed, always tongue-tied.

Until Farrah. Farrah becomes his friend. Farrah talks to him gently when he’s about to transform, calms him down. And if he makes it all the way to frog, then she just uses magic on him; transfiguration is her specialty.

“I like you, Hopper,” she tells him.

“No one’s ever really said that to me before,” he says, trying not to blush too hard. “But I like you, too.”

She smiles. “No one’s ever said that to me, either. I know I’m supposed to be a Fairy Godmother, but I could be a princess, too.”

Hopper frowns. “It’s not the same. You weren’t meant to. You’re already a part of two stories - why do you need another?”

She shakes her head. “Haven’t you heard Raven Queen? Destiny doesn’t matter anymore.”

“But what about Headmaster Grimm?” Hopper asks. Farrah sighs.

“I don’t know. But I know that I like you. And that you like me, too.”

He grins. “Yeah.”

And that’s when Hopper’s heart stops wandering, and finally finds a place to rest. 

  
  
  


**Jillian Beanstalk -** **_grudge_ **

  
  


**_I get too tough on myself // Sitting alone making fun of myself_ **

**_“Tough On Myself” - King Princess_ **

Jillian’s tall, and it’s for a reason. 

All that stuff about Jack stealing from the giants and having to run away from them before they ground his bones into bread? That all happened.

But not before Jack had his sweet way with the Giant King’s daughter, made her believe he loved and cared for her, and shimmied back down that beanstalk as fast as he could.

When Jillian was born, her mother wanted to take guardianship of her. But that had “gone against destiny,” and so Jillian had been ripped away from her mother’s large hands, placed with her normal-sized father instead.

You’d think that after stealing gold coins and a golden hen and a golden harp, that Jack would be set for life.

_Ha._ Wishful thinking.

After his mother died, Jack didn’t have anyone to monitor his reckless spending. He’d taken that gold and he’d gambled it all away. He’d lost the coins, the harp, and the hen. All of it. And he’d been drunk the whole time.

So Jillian doesn’t come from riches. She doesn’t live in a mansion made out of gold. No, Jillian comes from dirt and rags, from a father who’d rather look down a bottle than at his daughter, and she’s sick of it.

She can’t even see her mother. Headmaster Grimm and the rest of the Fable Purists say that she’s not allowed to go to the Land of the Giants until her fairy tale, and then she’ll probably have to kill her own mother just to fulfill her _stupid fucking destiny._

And the worst part is that Jillian isn’t even sure how she’ll turn out later in life. Will she be a bit more responsible with her gold? Or will she turn out just like her father did, drink and gamble it all away and be left with nothing but nightmares? She doesn’t know. She doesn’t _want_ to know.

Jillian holds grudges - against Jack Beanstalk, against Milton Grimm, against the people who stare at her when she walks down the halls, not quite as noticeably a Giant as Tiny (her cousin), but not exactly normal looking, either.

Jack wasn’t supposed to fuck a giant. Jack was supposed to fuck a normal girl. But he didn’t, and now Jillian is living proof of that. And she can’t hide it like Cerise Hood can, either. Jillian’s curse isn’t as easily concealed as a pair of ears underneath a cloak. She towers over all of her classmates, and they treat her like a freak because of it.

It’s not that they have anything against giants. They just don’t like that she’s the product of a story gone wrong.

The only person who isn’t afraid to look Jillian in the eye is, ironically, the smallest girl at school: Nina Thumbell.

It’s funny that Jillian falls in love with her. Because their stories are so different, because their sizes are so different, because if Nina’s story plays out correctly, she’ll marry a prince as tiny as she is.

Nina isn’t as small as her mother. But she’s petite. And about four heads shorter than Jillian.

She’s the coolest person ever. She laughs loudly, and smiles brightly, and offers Jillian support when she’s feeling down, doesn’t drink at parties alongside Jillian so that Jillian doesn’t feel alone. 

When Raven Queen lets everyone’s destinies loose, Jillian picks Nina up and kisses her for the whole world of Wonderland to see, for once not caring what people think.

The next day, hand in hand with Nina Thumbell, Jillian climbs a beanstalk to finally meet her mother.

  
  
  


**Rosabella Beauty -** **_test_ **

  
  


**_Just let me know, I’ll be at the door, at the door // Hoping you’ll come around // Just let me know, I’ll be on the floor, on the floor // Maybe we’ll work it out_ **

**_“Meet Me In the Hallway” - Harry Styles_ **

  
  


Rosabella looks at her life as a series of very important tests.

Mamá’s always been analytical like that. She’s clever. She always finds a way out of things. 

It’s surprising to Rosabella that her parents seem to be some of the most genuinely happy fairy tale parents, because their love was the biggest test of all.

Rosabella sees everything as a test because then there are only two outcomes: pass or fail. And that’s simple enough for her to understand.

She really loves activism. She spends a lot of time working on signs for protests, handing out flyers in Book End. It makes her feel special, like she’s a part of something. 

She doesn’t personally have a problem with her destiny - her parents turned out great, even after everything that happened to them. But Rosabella doesn’t need her story to happen. If it does, it does, and if not, oh well. She’ll find a way to be happy regardless.

Her destiny is a test because she isn’t sure if she’ll follow it yet or not. Even once the Storybook of Legends is done away with, and Rosabella is free to choose, she just doesn’t know.

She knows that her parents would be fine either way. She also knows that some of her classmate’s parents don’t care _what_ happened to the Storybook. Fate is fate.

Rosabella pities them.

Briar doesn’t want her destiny, and it’s clear why. Rosabella doesn’t hang out with her cousin much, but she wants her to be happy. She wants everyone to live the life they choose to live.

What really throws her for a loop is when she finds out that Daring Charming is her prince. 

If she follows her destiny, it’s _Daring_ she’s fated to marry. Daring Charming, who spends more time looking at his own reflection than the world around him, whose over-inflated sense of self gets in the way of him being able to actually care about anything.

Rosabella hates him at first. He doesn’t care about activism at all, doesn’t understand why Rosabella likes it so much. He’s ignorant, full of himself, pretentious.

But maybe he isn’t.

Maybe there’s more to Daring Charming than meets the eye. Maybe there’s a heart, a soul, somewhere deep inside there. Maybe he loves a lot. Maybe he doesn’t know what to do with his love. Maybe he comes from a broken home. Maybe he _cuts -_

Rosabella understands cuts. No matter how happy Mamá may seem, Rosabella has seen the scars on her wrists. She wants to help her with them.

She’s never known how.

But maybe she can help Daring. Maybe she can help him heal, become more than who he’s been forced to be his whole life.

Daring Charming is so much more than Rosabella ever realized. 

He reads the books she recommends. He comes to protests against animal cruelty with her. He meets her parents, doesn’t bat an eye when Papá makes Beast jokes. 

He’s...wonderful.

Rosabella...Rosabella loves him.

She never thought she could do that. Love anything past her own work, that is.

“Daring,” she tells him, late at night in her dorm while Darling is Grimm knows where. She kisses his palm. “I’m glad you’re my prince.”

He smiles sadly. “I wouldn’t be.”

She kisses his fingertips. “I never thought my life could manifest outside of my books and my work. But you’ve proved me wrong.”

He shakes his head. “I love you. But I’m not all that.”

She kisses his lips. “You are. You are the test I never anticipated. I didn’t prepare for you, because I didn’t know I had to. You didn’t either. But we’ve passed each other, anyway.”

He kisses her back. “Is that all right?”

She touches his face. “It’s all I ever needed.”

  
  
  


**Chase Redford -** **_page_ **

  
  


**_My sorry name has made it to graffiti // I was looking for someone to complete me_ **

**_“Mirrorball” - Elbow_ **

  
  


Chase Redford has two moms. It’s not like he has two moms who are married to each other. He just has two mothers in his life.

The Red Queen is who takes care of Chase. She takes him in as a baby, sees that he grows up well. She treats him like one of her (many, many own), trains him in the art of warfare, the art of chess, trains him to be a knight. 

The Queen of Hearts is Chase’s biological mother. He’s Lizzie’s twin; Lizzie does not know this. She doesn’t even know that she and Chase are related. They used to play together when they were younger. Then Chase started warrior training, Lizzie began her princess studies. She escaped the Evil Queen’s curse over Wonderland and started going to high school. 

Chase was not so lucky. Chase is here, and he knows he’s the mistake. Lizzie will be the next queen and Chase will be the Red Knight, serving his mother, his real mother, not the one who gave him up because she got two children when she wanted only one.

Lizzie probably won’t even recognize him if and when she comes back home. Chase pretends that fact doesn’t hurt him.

It does. 

He supposes he should count himself lucky that he’s the younger twin, so Lizzie won’t be getting any nasty surprises on her Legacy Day.

He loves the Red Queen. He loves fighting for her. He’s proud to call her his mom. He hasn’t seen the Queen of Hearts since he was a boy; he doesn’t want to. He was her mistake, and she was his.

He never really sees any other Wonderland kids, besides Courtly, who’s fundamentally batty.

Until one day he catches two kids his age trespassing on the Red Chessboard. One is a girl, with pink skin and fluffy ears - must be the White Rabbit’s daughter - and the other, the other is...

The prettiest boy Chase has ever seen in his life.

“Uh,” he says, taking off his helmet. “Hi. I’m Chase Redford.”

Bunny Blanc frowns. “You look familiar...”

The pretty boy shakes his head, scowling. “We _definitely_ haven’t met before. And if it’s all the same to you, we’ll be on our way now.”

“Oh, come on, Alistair,” Bunny says, and _oh, this must be Alistair Wonderland._

This complicates things. It also makes sense.

“Technically, I’m supposed to bring you to my mother,” Chase says. “But I can make an exception.”

Alistair snorts. “Oh, would you?”

Bunny coughs. “Thank you, Chase. We won’t bother you again.” She turns her head. “Are you _sure_ we don’t know you? You look a little like - “

Alistair’s eyes widen. “ _Lizzie Hearts._ Oh my Grimm, the rumors are true. You’re her twin.”

Chase swallows. “Yeah.”

Bunny gasps. “Does she know?”

Chase shakes his head. “I haven’t seen her since we were kids.”

Alistair’s face sets. He takes a journal out of his pack, tears out a page, hands it to Chase. “Here. Anything you write on that will appear on another page in the journal. If we find Lizzie, we’ll let you know.”

“ _Thank you,_ ” Chase says breathlessly.

He doesn’t write on the page for a good two months. He doesn’t see Bunny and Alistair again. It’s the forty-third day of Septembruary when Chase notices letters swimming on the page out of the corner of his eye while he studies battle plays.

_Hey. This is Alistair. We’re in Ever After; Lizzie’s here. Do you want us to say anything? You could try and talk to her._

Chase’s heart leaps. But he writes:

_No, don’t say anything. She’ll come home one day; I want to tell her in person. But thank you for making sure she’s ok._

_No problem._

_Hey, Alistair? Can I ask you a question?_

_What?_

_Is there chess in Ever After?_

_You know, that’s a really good question..._

Over the span of just a few weeks, Chase falls in love with the boy on the page.

He doesn’t know how Alistair feels about him. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever get a chance to explain to Lizzie who he is, what they are to each other. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever get out of Wonderland, maybe enroll at Ever After High. See Alistair. And Bunny. And _Lizzie._ He doesn’t even know who his father is.

But sometimes not knowing something can be just as fun as knowing.

  
  
  


**Darling Charming -** **_doll_ **

  
  


**_Cola with the burnt-out taste // I’m the one you tell your fears to // There’ll never be enough of us_ **

**_“Buzzcut Season” - Lorde_ **

  
  


Darling Charming is not a doll, no matter how much her mother wants her to be one.

She grows up being told every day that she was a mistake. That she was supposed to be a boy. That she’s not as good as Daring, not even as good as Dexter, and she never will be.

The physical pain comes from her father. The verbal abuse, from her mother.

Darling feels bad for Mother. She’s been victim to Father’s beatings for as long as Darling has. Longer. But she’s also her own brand of poison, different from her husband’s - and this one is engineered specifically for Darling.

While her brothers get to practice sword-fighting and damsel-rescuing, Darling has to stay inside and work on etiquette, table manners, embroidery, party hosting, pianoforte. 

She doesn’t hate doing these things; they’re just not her. She wants to do what Daring and Dexter are doing. She doesn’t care if she’s a girl - she’s still strong. 

“ _Focus,_ Darling,” Mother tells her one day when she’s twelve years old, as she stares wistfully out the window at her brothers training on the lawn. “These stitches won’t cross themselves.”

“Sorry,” Darling says.

“You’ll never be Daring,” Mother says offhandedly. “Don’t think you ever could be.”

This is the comment that spurs Darling on to sneak out at night and do some training of her own.

Just to spite Mother.

But it makes her feel so alive.

At fifteen, Mother tells her to pack her things for Ever After High. Apparently, Darling’s allowed to go. There’s a story for her after all. One that involves her getting saved instead of doing the saving, but a story for her nonetheless. 

Darling is 99% sure Headmaster Grimm made it up.

“Now just remember that when you get there there will be lots of boys,” Mother says. “Watch your figure and take care of your hair, and they’ll flock to you, the way they should. You’re a Charming.” She fingers a lock of Darling’s hair. Darling resists the urge to flinch away. “Even if you were a mistake, you’re still a Charming. Make me proud.”

It’s not a nice goodbye. But it’s better than the one Darling gets from her father - a couple of new bruises and a split lip. 

“ _Do not disappoint,_ ” he growls, and Darling knows that she will.

She’s meant to love the boys at Ever After High, but it’s the girls who attract her attention, and that makes everything worse.

But Apple White is the most gorgeous person Darling has ever laid eyes on. 

And she’s going to marry Daring.

Oh, the _irony._

Darling tries to run away from it all, and when she does, she falls down a rabbit hole. No, really. She trips into a magic portal and ends up in Wonderland.

A damsel would look for a way out. Or no - she’d wait for a man to come and save her.

Darling is no damsel. Not how her mother thinks she is. And she’s sick of Mother treating her like a doll, posing her and twisting her in her own image, however she wants.

Mother was right about one thing, though:

Darling is a Charming.

She becomes the White Knight of Wonderland, taking over from the old one, who trains her as his prodigy. She saves people. She becomes a hero by night, always making sure to be back in the dorm she shares with Rosabella Beauty by sunrise.

When this has her falling asleep in her classes, she starts to spend whole days in Wonderland, instead.

No one really seems to notice she’s gone. Rosabella doesn’t ask questions, which is nice. 

Darling becomes the hero she’d always wanted to be, greater than both of her brothers, than her mother, than her father. 

And then she accidentally takes Daring’s place. _She_ is Apple White’s true love. Not her brother.

It makes her head swim just thinking about it. Not only does she love a girl, but she’s apparently fated to love her - even if it’s unconventional, Grimm won’t argue with fate.

“ _Thank you,_ ” Apple whispers against Darling’s lips, her stomach, her thighs.

“What did I do?” Darling shivers.

Apple kisses her. “Thank you for being my Princess Charming.”

“It could have been anyone else.”

Apple smiles. “I’m glad it wasn’t.” 

Darling Charming is in love with a girl. She is not a damsel. She is not a coward. She is not a sissy. She is not a doll.

She is a warrior, and she shines.

  
  
  


**Ramona Badwolf -** **_alarm_ **

  
  


**_Toss your dirty shoes in my washing machine heart // Baby, bang it up inside // I’m not wearing my usual lipstick // I thought maybe we would kiss tonight_ **

**_“Washing Machine Heart” - Mitski_ **

  
  


From the moment she’s born, Ramona spends her life on the alert.

She’s the daughter of the Big Bad Wolf like she was supposed to be. She’s also the daughter of Little Red Riding Hood like she was never meant to be. 

Her parents named her Ramona because it means “protecting hands,” and from the beginning, Ramona is protective. Of her family, of her parents’ forbidden love, of her baby sister, the baby sister who will someday bring about her end.

Because of all of these things that so constantly threaten Ramona’s happiness simply by existing, Ramona learns to always be on the watch. To keep her ears trained for anything bad. To sound the alarm and run like she was taught to if something happens.

When she’s seven, Cerise tells Ramona that she wants to be the next Big Bad Wolf instead of the next Little Red Riding Hood.

“The wolf is big and scary!” Cerise says. “I want to be big and scary.” 

Ramona touches her cheek gently. “No, you don’t, sweetie. You don’t.”

Because as the next Little Red Riding hood, all Cerise has to do is take a walk in the woods, get eaten, get saved. She won’t have to eat her grandmother, her own baby sister. She won’t have to be chopped to pieces by Jeremiah Huntsman’s son. She’ll be seen as the hero, not the villain.

Ramona almost envies her. But Cerise is her little sister, and Ramona loves her too much for that.

She just _hates_ living this life. Forced to take a separate last name than her mother and sister, forced to pretend she’s fatherless, forced to act like she has no connection to Cerise at all when they’re at school. Encouraged to bully and belittle Cerise, simply because she’s destined to do so.

Ramona thinks destiny is a load of dragon shit.

Ramona is allowed to show off her ears proudly, telling everyone who she is and what she’s meant to be. Cerise has to hide her true self under a cape.

“It’s bullshit,” Ramona says. 

“It’s _bullshit,_ ” she says, and no one listens, except for Justine Dancer.

“I’m sorry,” Justine says. “We’re roommates this year. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

There’s something about Justine that makes Ramona trust her immediately. Usually, Ramona judges quickly, acts sullen and hostile to everyone because that’s what’s expected of her, because she has to so no one finds out her family’s secret.

But Justine is different.

“You don’t know what I am,” she tells Justine halfway through the year. “You don’t understand.”

“Thank you for trusting me,” Justine says back to her three months later. “I wish you didn’t have to hide.”

“I love you,” Ramona tells her a month afterward, kissing her honey-sweet lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

And with those words, some of the alarm seems to seep out of Ramona’s shoulders.

  
  
  


**Alistair Wonderland -** **_strange_ **

  
  


**_To my surprise and my delight // I saw sunrise, I saw sunlight // I am nothing in the dark // And the clouds burst to show daylight_ **

**_“Daylight” - Coldplay_ **

  
  


Alistair Wonderland is a very strange boy. 

Well, that’s what people tell him. Truth be told, he doesn’t think he’s stranger than Maddie or Kitty or Lizzie, or really any of the other Wonderland kids. But he’s still from Wonderland. Strange runs in his blood.

He was born a girl. Mom had named him Allison. He’d never known his father. He’d never asked because Mom had always looked so sad when he was brought up. 

And then Alistair realized he wasn’t a girl. And when he told Mom so, she just smiled.

Alice lives in the normal world. She visits Wonderland a few times a year, but mainly sticks to the script and stays at home because that’s where she’s meant to be. But the normal world has never been home to Alice - she craves adventure, riddles, teatime, looking glasses - things that can only be found in Wonderland. Alistair sees the wistfulness in her eyes when he visits her and wishes he could bring her back where she belongs for good.

Alistair stays in Wonderland as much as possible. He knows he isn’t strictly allowed to, but he spends his time learning the ways of the land, figuring out the logic of everything (contrary to popular belief, Wonderland _does_ have logic; it’s just not the kind of logic that a normal person is accustomed to). He’s supposed to be a complete stranger to the place when his story begins, but Alistair has a yearning for exploring that he doesn’t know how to quench. 

And then the Evil Queen casts a spell over Wonderland, and Alistair is trapped. Stuck, away from his mom, and his friends. Everyone is gone.

Except for Bunny. Bunny is the one thing keeping Alistair grounded, stopping him from floating away forever. She’s sweet and kind, and generous, and she’s got the most beautiful white hair and red lips and - 

Alistair’s sort of in love with her. She explores Wonderland with him once the curse is cast, tries to help him find a way to get to Mom and Kitty and Lizzie and Maddie in the other worlds.

Alistair believes that Bunny might be his true love. Kitty used to tell them so, teasingly, in a voice that made them both blush. Alistair’s pretty sure there’s no one else out there for him, that Bunny’s all he’ll ever need and all he’ll ever want.

“ _Alistair,_ ” she gasps when he kisses her, and he wants to hear her do it more.

But while Alistair loves Bunny, and tells her so every day, and he loves being in Wonderland and discovering every inch of it, he still misses the rest of their friends. And he knows from the frantic ear-grooming and the melancholy eyes that Bunny misses them too.

They work hard every day to find a way out. And when they find the Storybook of Legends and a rabbit hole to Ever After, it all seems too good to be true.

But they’re here, and Lizzie’s hugs are comforting, and Maddie’s hair is soft, and Kitty’s smile is genuine, and Bunny’s lips are sweet and perfect.

“Well, _this_ is a new development,” Kitty says with an arched eyebrow, and Alistair just laughs. 

Even after everything with the fake Storybook and the Well of Wonder, Alistair doesn’t go home to Mom. He wants to, he knows he should, but he can’t bring himself to do it. For some reason, he’s nervous. Maybe it’s because he hasn’t seen Mom in two years. Normal years, not Wonderland ones, that is.

There’s one thing he doesn’t account for, and that’s Chase Redford. 

Alistair always believed that he was born to love one person and one person only: Bunny Blanc. So when he starts to catch feelings for the boy still stuck in Wonderland, for the boy on the other end of the magic page, for Lizzie’s twin brother, he’s confused. And upset. He likes talking to Chase, likes learning more and more about him, and even if he’s only met him in person once, he finds him captivating and intriguing. But Alistair is supposed to like Bunny and only Bunny; and he’s perplexed.

He doesn’t want to lie. So he tells Bunny about it, on one of those countless nights where Humphrey is out in the Enchanted Forest and Bunny is tired of her roommate, Faybelle.

He expects her to be angry. Bunny just smiles and says, “I love Maddie, too. I think it’s ok. I think we can be in love with other people while still being in love with each other.”

Alistair grins. “That’s fantasmical,” he tells her.

She giggles. “Well, callooh, callay!” she cries. “Though it isn’t quite Frabjous Day just yet.”

He kisses her. “Every day is Frabjous Day when I’m with you.”

“Oh, shut it.”

Alistair loves Bunny Blanc, but he also loves Chase Redford. And maybe that isn’t too strange after all.

In fact, things seem pretty… _normal._ Which is not a word Alistair uses lightly.

That is until he finally goes home, through a portal in Headmaster Grimm’s office, to visit his mother in her house in London, where she moved because she couldn’t stand to live in the country anymore, and she hugs and kisses him and asks him about Wonderland and tells him about the woman she’s seeing named Wendy Darling, and then, with a frown and a shaking hand, she carefully puts her teacup down on its saucer and says to Alistair,

“It’s time I told you about your sister.”

And though he’s sitting in a parlor in London, England, from the way Alistair’s head starts to spin, you’d think he was back in strange old Wonderland again.

  
  
  


**Courtly Jester -** **_profile_ **

  
  


**_Oh, father, tell me, do we get what we deserve? // Oh, we get what we deserve_ **

**_“Way Down We Go” - KALEO_ **

  
  


Courtly is the Joker Card’s child. That’s why they play so many pranks.

They’re also Alistair Wonderland’s half-sibling. That had been a mistake.

For Alice, at least.

Courtly’s father raped Alice. Courtly knows this. Courtly’s not going to try and gloss over what happened. He raped her. And because of what he did to the poor woman who just wanted a home in Wonderland, Courtly was born.

This is part of why Alice doesn’t visit Wonderland often. She can’t bear to see the place tainted by the memory of Courtly’s father.

He _sickens_ Courtly. He took them in when they were born, even if only to raise them in his image. He used Courtly’s impressionable childhood years to manipulate them, twist them, _break_ them.

Courtly is the son of a bitch they are because of their father. They often wonder what they would be like if they had stayed with Alice. Would they be the next explorer of Wonderland? Would their half-brother even exist?

Courtly has met Alistair. They have taunted him with insults, teased him about his relationship with the White Rabbit’s daughter, poked fun at his clothes, and his hair.

Do they even believe these things, or are they just a bitch because they have to be? Courtly isn’t even sure themself. 

Alistair does not know that Courtly is his family, and maybe that’s for the best. He’d probably be disappointed. And he’d probably try and kill Courtly’s father. Not that Courtly would complain; they might even lend him a hand.

See, Courtly has never learned to be anything but _mean._ It’s their persona, their personality, their _destiny_ as a Joker Card. They are supposed to cause problems for others - but usually in a much more malicious way than Kitty Cheshire is supposed to.

Maybe, if Courtly got to know Alistair, they could change. Maybe they could become a better person, a better sibling. Maybe if _anyone_ offered their help to them, Courtly wouldn’t have to keep up this ridiculous profile. _Maybe if -_

But no one ever does. No one ever reaches out. Courtly is a lone Joker Card, a rarity in the pack, and they will stay that way forever. Kitty has Lizzie Hearts, and Alistair has Bunny, and word around Wonderland says that he’s got Chase Redford, too, and Bunny’s got Maddie Hatter. 

And they’ve all got each other.

Courtly has no one. Nothing but their profile and the pain from their father. No one reaches out to them, but maybe it’s because Courtly never gives them the _chance._ That’s why when they sneak into the Queen of Hearts’ birthday party, masquerading as Lizzie, and the Queen treats them lovingly and beautifully, Courtly wants to cry. Because they never got to experience anything this wonderful.

They want to meet their mother. Meet her for real, officially, for the first time in 17 years. But what would they say to her? What would they _do?_

Would they apologize for their father’s actions? Would they remark upon how wonderfully she carried out her fairytale? Would they pretend not to be envious of Alistair’s destiny to be the hero, stuck with their own to be the villain?

Courtly doesn’t know. They really just don’t know. They have nobody. They have _nothing._

Nothing but this fucking profile.

  
  
  


**Farrah Goodfairy** **_\- wait_ **

  
  


**_And I know no one will save me // I just need someone to kiss // Give me one good honest kiss // And I’ll be alright_ **

**_“Nobody” - Mitski_ **

  
  


Farrah has two fairytales.

She’s not sure that everyone at Ever After is aware of this fact. Yes, she’s going to be Ashlynn Ella’s Fairy Godmother. She’s going to appear to her and give her hope, transform her pumpkin into a carriage and her rags into a beautiful ball gown, and send her off to the festival. She’s going to give her shoes of glass and she’s going to watch proudly as a prince fits them perfectly onto her feet.

But Farrah is also Cedar Wood’s Blue Fairy. She’s going to come to Cedar’s father, tell him who she is and use her magic to bring Cedar to life (though Cedar is already alive, so maybe she’ll have to curse them first?), and later, she will transform Cedar into a real human being, flesh and blood instead of wooden skin and metal joints.

Farrah plays the more famous role in Ashlynn’s story, so she’s not surprised that fewer people know about her connection to Cedar’s tale, as well. But when you’re the daughter of both Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother and Pinocchio’s Blue Fairy, you’ve got two destinies to fulfill simply by blood.

Farrah would be lying if she said she wasn’t excited. She’s absolutely thrilled to carry out her destiny. She doesn’t _need_ to be a main character to shine; she’s just happy to wave her wand and do something nice for someone. Farrah loves to do things for people.

She also loves Ashlynn. She loves Ashlynn’s hair, and her strawberry-colored lips, and her love for nature, and the way her eyes light up when she hears about a shoe sale. Farrah loves her singing and her kind soul, and she wishes, just a little bit, that _she_ could be Ashlynn’s prince.

But Ashlynn goes public with her love for Hunter Huntsman. So she’s off the page for Farrah, and maybe her fairy tale is, too.

That’s ok. Farrah would love to be a Fairy Godmother, but she understands if it’s not what Ashlynn wants. And she’ll find love with someone else. All she has to do is wait.

And then Farrah falls in love with Cedar. She really doesn’t mean to love both her tale’s protagonists - it just _happens._

Cedar’s eyes and their dresses and their jokes and their loyalty to their friends no matter what. The way they smell like wood polish and pine trees, and the way they never lie, because they _can’t_ lie.

Farrah loves all of these things about them. But so does Cerise Hood. So Farrah steps aside once again and allows fate to run its course. 

She’d be lying if she said she doesn’t feel overlooked. Like she doesn’t matter. Like she’s nothing but a background character in someone else’s story. She’s a helper, not a lover.

Well, even if it’s not her story, Farrah’s not worthless. She’s not sure Ashlynn and Cedar even _know_ Farrah loves them.

Though she’s not exactly _telling_ it to them, either.

It’s ok. She’ll wait. She’ll wait for her true love. She’ll wait and see if her stories play out or not. She’ll wait, and maybe she’ll get to taste Ashlynn’s strawberry lips and hold Cedar’s wooden hand. 

She’s so focused on these things, that she doesn’t notice Hopper Croakington until he’s right in front of her.

That’s when Farrah realizes that she’s been relying too much on her future. That she’s been using destiny as a crutch to prop herself up when really, she doesn’t need it. 

No one really does. So Farrah smiles and holds Hopper close as she watches Hunter and Ashlynn and Cerise and Cedar go by.

Because she knows things will turn out ok in the end. 

She’s a Fairy Godmother. Happily ever afters are sort of her specialty.

  
  
  


**Duchess Swan -** **_cruel_ **

  
  


**_He told me I belong in a churchyard // He told me I could walk away but I wouldn’t get far // Tell me, how do people know what is hurt, what is love? // He told me I belong in a churchyard_ **

**_“Churchyard” - AURORA_ **

  
  


People call Duchess cruel.

And they’re right.

Duchess was born cruel. Odette’s daughter, born out of tragedy, just before her death. The fairy tales say that after Odile and Rothbart’s cruel trick, Siegfried ran to the pregnant Odette as fast as his hunter’s legs could carry him, begged for her forgiveness. When she wouldn’t give it to him, he was heartbroken. She died, and he almost went with her.

The truth is that Siegfried murdered Odette when she refused his silver-tongued apologies. Because he had never really been cursed by Rothbart or enchanted by Odile. He had just wanted more than he deserved, and he hadn’t known when to stop.

Duchess was hatched from an egg, an egg that Siegfried’s men found by the shores of the lake and brought to him. Siegfried hadn’t wanted her. He’d kept her to maintain appearances, for his fairy tale, so no one would suspect anything. 

He still doesn’t want Duchess. He hardly pays her any attention, just sits on his throne like the ass he is and wages war on other kingdoms, pillages more towns, claims more land, still unable to quench his thirst for more, more, _more._

When he notices Duchess, he tells her she’s worthless. She doesn’t listen, because she already knows this.

Duchess is fated to die, just like her mother did. She will sign the Storybook of Legends, pledge her destiny as the next Swan Princess, and therefore pledge her soul to a man who will not love her and a lake that will not save her. She will die, and leave behind a child just like her who will hurt the same as she does.

Duchess doesn’t want anyone else’s destiny; she just doesn’t want the one she has. For the longest time, she tried to take other’s happy endings away from them. It wasn’t _fair_ that they would live and love comfortably with a spouse and a kingdom, while Duchess got nothing.

She doesn’t do that anymore. It was part of what made her so cruel in everyone else’s eyes. And she doesn’t want to be seen that way.

Not that she’ll ever come back from that label.

The only people who really understand her are Sparrow and Poppy.

Sparrow has been Duchess’s best friend since their first year at Ever After. He’s loud and obnoxious and super annoying, and that’s why Duchess likes him. He’s everything Siegfried never let Duchess be, and everything Duchess needs in a best friend. 

He follows her on her stupid schemes to ruin other people’s lives. She helps him solve the mystery of his dad’s death. She comforts him when they discover the ugly and horrifying truth. He holds her when she finds out that her father is seeing Odile again, in secret, and that she’s pregnant.

People watch Sparrow and Duchess with a wary eye. They think they’re trouble.

They are, and that’s why they’re friends.

And Poppy O’Hair was unexpected, but not unwelcome. She understands what it’s like to live in the shadow of other’s destinies. She tells Duchess all about her sister Holly while she brushes Duchess’s hair, and Duchess listens, and Poppy listens as she rants on about Odile.

Poppy does what not many others have: she makes an effort to understand Duchess. And Duchess is grateful. Grateful that she hasn’t turned away everyone with her mindless cruelty, that mindless cruelty that comes to her as easily as breathing does.

When Poppy kisses her for the first time, Duchess doesn’t think about what it means for their stories. She just kisses Poppy back and tries to forget everything.

Forgetting is simple and familiar because it makes you feel just about as numb as being cruel.

  
  
  


**Humphrey Dumpty -** **_unfortunate_ **

  
  


**_Then I’m screaming in my head // When I’ve got nowhere to go // And I’m falling into bed // On a high chemical low_ **

**_“I’m Full” - Wallows_ **

  
  


Humphrey’s story is kind of a joke. They know this, and they understand this, and that’s what makes it so easy to laugh at.

All they have to do is sit on a wall, fall off, and die. That’s it. It’s almost funny how simple it is.

At least, it _would_ be funny, if it weren’t for the dying part.

Because when Papa died, he left behind a wife and a whole carton of children. And since Humphrey is the oldest, they’re the one who’s supposed to carry out their father’s destiny.

They’re not sure why the eggs. They’ve never understood that. They suppose some parents probably changed Papa to an egg when telling their children, so it could be a cautionary tale with a lesson on dangerous high places, without a man falling off and dying horribly.

Needless to say, when Humphrey arrives at Ever After, people are really surprised to learn that they’re human. And then they all immediately start buzzing about their story, calling them poor, feeling sorry for them, calling their plight unfortunate.

Yes, Humphrey is poor. Financially. Their mom can barely scrape by enough to feed Humphrey’s seven younger siblings, and that’s because all those big kingdoms just love to tax, tax, tax the poverty-stricken villages, until absolutely nothing is left.

If only Robin Hood were still around.

Humphrey hates royalty. They hate the princes and princesses at their school because they’re all rich and popular and perfect, and Humphrey has nothing. Royalty ruined their life. Royalty keeps their siblings hungry, their mother fragile.

Royalty took Humphrey’s father away from them, because he hadn’t just _fallen_ off that wall, he’d _jumped._

And it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Yet, through all of this hatred that Humphrey has, there’s one prince that they just can’t despise.

Dexter’s their best friend. And he’d never wanted to be a Charming, anyway.

He’s kind and humble and generous, and when Humphrey brings up, just once, off-handedly and purely by accident the situation at home, Dexter sends their mother enough gold to keep her happy for six months.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Humphrey tells him when they find out. 

Dexter shrugs. “I wanted to. I know my father wouldn’t have. And I’m not like my father. I actually care.”

Humphrey starts to cry. “I’m going to die someday, Dex.”

“No, you’re not,” Dexter says, touching their face. “I’ll stop that, too.”

And maybe Humphrey believes him.

  
  
  


**Cedar Wood -** **_terms_ **

  
  


**_Can I make my own opinion, tell you all about it? // Everyone approves of it I want to scream and shout it // And they don’t want to see us, I think it could be a sign_ **

**_“Pulling Leaves Off Trees” - Wallows_ **

  
  


Cedar does not want to be the next Pinocchio.

Dad’s all for it - he’s a real man now, and he built Cedar with his own two hands, his hands of flesh and blood, and he asked the Blue Fairy to enchant the puppet he’d created, and that was how Cedar was born. The first memory Cedar has is of their father grinning at them.

They love Dad, they really do. But he’s so excited for Cedar to be the next version of himself, to go out and live their fairy tale to the fullest.

And Cedar doesn’t want to go through all that to become real. They want to be real _now._

“Cedar, my little splinter, it’s not that easy,” Dad tells them. “You’ll be a real kid soon enough. You’ve just got to get swallowed by a whale before you do.”

Cedar grins, but it feels like a grimace. They want to become human. But they don’t like the idea of having to prove their worth for it. Like, if they don’t fulfill their destiny, they’ll never be worthy of what they want.

That’s not fair. And it’s equally unfair that Cedar can’t lie.

See, Dad is allowed to lie without consequence now. But he doesn’t. He’d spent so long being nothing but honest, that now it’s all he is. And that’s good, though it can get pretty annoying. But the alternative of him doing nothing but lying would probably be worse.

Pinocchio could lie, but everyone always knew when he did it. Cedar can’t lie at all, and they’ve got no growing nose or anything. They always have to tell the truth, because the Blue Fairy and Dad and the Brothers Grimm thought that would be a great idea, to flip the script without derailing the entire story.

“The new tales are allowed a little liberty here and there,” Headmaster Grimm says and loses his head at Raven Queen when they don’t want to pledge their destiny.

Cedar should count themselves lucky that they don’t have to be a villain. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be a Rebel. 

Cedar thinks the worst part about not being able to lie is what it does to their friends. 

When they stumble upon Hunter and Ashlynn’s secret date, they almost tell everyone. Cedar is _terrified_ of being interviewed by Blondie Lockes, afraid they’ll spill something they weren’t supposed to spill. And when Cupid throws that secret True Hearts Day Dance? Cedar has to figure out the real address of the party later from Cerise after they lead Duchess Swan on a wild goose chase.

And that’s another thing that comes with destiny - Dad never married, never felt the need to, and Cedar could if they wanted to, but who would really love them? All their creaky joints and their splintery skin and their permanent honesty policy? There isn’t a chance in the realms that Cedar could get a date.

They really want one, though. With one specific girl.

_Cerise._ Cedar wants to say her name over and over again forever. She’s perfect - red cloak and gorgeous brown hair and long legs and all. It just makes matters worse that she’s Cedar’s roommate, parading around in her pajamas with no bra on, her skin smooth and soft and real for Cedar to see.

Cedar eats lunch with her, sits next to her in class, dances with her at parties, falls asleep watching her do the same. They feel flashes of jealousy as they watch Cerise and Daring flirt at Thronecoming, and when they fall asleep that night, Cedar thinks of that time Cerise was coming out of the showers while Cedar was going in, a towel wrapped around her and her skin covered in water droplets.

As a puppet, sexual desire isn’t something Cedar can strictly act on - but they can _feel_ it. They can definitely feel it.

And the kicker is that Cerise doesn’t trust Cedar. She’s friends with them, but she doesn’t trust them. How can she, when she has a secret that big and bad?

“Wait, you mean you don’t know?” People will ask. “About Cerise?”

“No,” Cedar will tell them. “I have no idea.”

“Oh, because - right. Sorry. Guess I can’t tell you, then.” They’ll smile apologetically, and Cedar will say,

“Right. Of course.” And their wooden heart will feel like it’s rotting straight through.

“But you’re her roommate! How can you not _know?_ ”

Cedar doesn’t even know how to respond. And they’re not mad at Cerise; they understand why she wouldn’t tell them. Cedar can’t be trusted, and they hate that it has to be this way.

“Please,” they say, talking to the Blue Fairy on their Mirrorphone. “Please take back the curse. Give me a nose like my dad or something. But - please. I want to lie.”

“I’m sorry, Cedar,” she replies. “I just can’t do that.”

Cedar wants to carve their insides right out. 

When the news breaks that Cerise is part wolf, she comes to Cedar first. She dashes into their room, pulls Cedar into a hug, and doesn’t let go.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs. “I wanted to tell you so badly, I really did.”

“It’s ok,” Cedar says, rubbing her back. “I understand.”

Cerise sniffles. “Well, now you know. I’m a _freak._ ”

“What?” Cedar pulls back. “Cerise, don’t say that.”

“No, I know it’s true. I’m a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to exist, not like this. Tell me I’m a freak. Do it.”

She searches Cedar’s eyes pleadingly. And Cedar realizes that she’s looking for the truth, and she expects the truth to be that yes, she is a freak and that she’ll never be happy.

Instead, Cedar says, “You’re no more a freak than I am. Look at me. I’m a goddamn puppet. And I literally can’t tell a lie. Look at Jillian - her mom was a giant. Nina Thumbell is smaller than everyone else here. It’s ok. It was destiny.”

Cerise sighs. “I _hate_ that word.”

“I know. I do too. But it’s true. Sometimes destiny is a good thing. And I truly believe you were destined to be the daughter of both Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. I do.”

Cerise smiles. “You’re telling the truth.”

Cedar taps their nose. “I can’t do anything else.”

Cerise touches their face and the feeling filters throughout all of Cedar’s wooden nerve-endings. 

“Can I kiss you?”

Cedar’s breath catches. “ _Yes._ ”

That’s when Cedar decides that they’re still going to become a real human being one day. They’re just going to get there on their own terms. Cerise will be there with them, and Dad will just have to deal with the fact that there won’t be a new Pinocchio. 

Cedar is doing things their way. Just like how Cerise’s parents did it. 

Maybe it’s their destiny, after all.

  
  
  


**Briar Beauty -** **_alive_ **

  
  


**_Future heartbreak // Future headaches // Wide-eyed nights late-lying awake // With future cold shakes // From stupid mistakes // Future me hates me for // Hates me for_ **

**_“Future Me Hates Me” - The Beths_ **

  
  


The problem is, she’s supposed to die.

“Century-long coma.” Sure, but that’s _basically_ death. Long enough at least for approximately a billion spiders to crawl into Briar’s mouth while she sleeps.

At first, she’d yearned for her destiny like nothing else - she was going to grow up to be a princess, and marry a handsome prince, and have everything she’d ever wanted, just like her parents. She’d just have to sleep for a while to do it, but really, was that such a bad thing?

And then when Briar had started going to Ever After High, everyone liked her so much. She’d become best friends with two other princesses, Apple and Ashlynn, and she walked the hallways with confidence, and people lined up to carry her books, and she’d been a Royal.

And then she’d seen what Raven Queen and the others were doing: going against their chosen destinies. At first, Briar had scoffed along with her friends, looked down on the Rebels.

But now...now she’s one of them. 

See, Briar had been so focused on partying and making friends and living it up, that she’d never really considered she was going to lose all of that. But she will. She’ll prick her finger on a spindle and sleep for one hundred years. And when she wakes, she’ll have her Prince Charming.

But all of her friends will be gone.

Briar wonders - could her prince be, like, one of Apple and Daring’s grandkids? Because that would be _so_ weird, dating a relative of your high school besties who are now _dead._

They’ll be dead. Briar will wake up and will have no one but a man who’s entitled to her simply because he kissed her while she was asleep, which is all _kinds_ of creepy.

It sounds terrible.

And so when Briar accidentally sticks herself with a needle before Thronecoming, and she opens her eyes seven hours later to Ashlynn shaking her awake frantically, Briar knows she can’t do it.

She can’t lose everything that makes her happy, everything that makes her feel _alive,_ just for the sake of _destiny._ She’s seen the way her mother acts. She’s still not used to today’s technology because in her head she’s still a century behind all of it. And that’s why Briar Rose spaces out so frequently, sleeps even frequenter.

So Briar does what she has to do: she finds the real Storybook of Legends and chucks it down the Well of Wonder. 

She’s helping so many kids at school by doing this. She’s helping Ashlynn, Hunter, Raven, all of them. This is a completely selfless act.

So why does Briar feel so selfish doing it?

And when she starts walking back to the castle, Faybelle hovers in front of her and says, “I saw what you did.”

Briar scowls. “Fuck off, Faybelle. You didn’t see shit.”

Faybelle raises their eyebrows. “ _Tut, tut,_ Little Miss Princess, the future Sleeping Beauty shouldn’t have such a _foul mouth._ ”

“I don’t _want_ to be the future Sleeping Beauty,” Briar hisses. “Don’t you get it? Why else would I get rid of the book?”

Faybelle scoffs. “Why _wouldn’t_ you want your destiny? You get to be a princess; I have to die at your true love’s hand. You think _you’ve_ got it rough? Think again.”

Briar rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on. I thought you _wanted_ to be like your mother.”

“I do!” Faybelle exclaims. “But you have to admit, I’ve got the worse end of the deal.”

Briar sits down in the grass, arms wrapped around her knees. “I’m going to lose everyone I love.”

Faybelle sets down gently next to her. “You’ll have your prince.”

Briar snorts. “I don’t give a shit about my prince.”

And then Faybelle says quietly, “You’ll have me.”

Briar glances at them, surprised. And Faybelle covers her hand with theirs.

“Oh,” Briar says, feeling heat roll through her body. “Right. I guess I will.”

Faybelle nods. “I won’t tell anyone,” they say gently, much differently than they’d previously sounded. “About what you did.”

“Why not? You want your destiny. Why don’t you hate me right now?”

Faybelle sighs. “I do want to make my mother proud, but...not if it’s at the expense of your unhappiness. Or something cheesy like that. _Gods,_ Beauty, you’ve made me go _soft._ ”

Briar grins. “You really would stop being evil? For me?”

Faybelle laughs. “Oh, I’ll still be evil, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.” Their face relaxes. “Just maybe not to you.”

“ _Faybelle,_ ” Briar murmurs, feeling different, new, _alive._ She leans in, just a little bit.

Faybelle stands. “I’m sorry, Briar. I can’t. It’s too much. And it would never work.”

Briar nods, trying to ignore the hollowness inside of her. “Sure. I understand.”

Faybelle smiles sadly. “Good night, Briar.”

“Good night.”

And Briar decides that she made the right choice, getting rid of the book. For herself and for everyone else.

Because Briar Beauty wants to feel alive. And if the way to do that is to reject her destiny, lose the respect of her parents, and fall in love with the villain of her story? 

Well, no one ever said living was _easy._

  
  
  


**Maddie Hatter -** **_shape_ **

  
  


**_I’m not that kind of fool // Who needs to read the room // (Somebody tell me) // If I’ve fallen from your lips // Straight to your fingertips // (Somebody tell me)_ **

**_“Superbike” - Jay Som_ **

  
  


Maddie can be many different things, many different shapes, and all of them seem to fit her just fine.

She’s a Hatter’s daughter - of course they do! Any hat can fit any head if the hat-wearer lets it. And if they don’t? Why they’re just too boring to be trying on hats anyway!

Maddie likes to be happy because being happy is so much more fun than _not_ being happy. She doesn’t understand how other people do it, being unhappy all the time. It’s so much easier not to be. It makes life simpler in all the right ways.

Or is that the wrong ways? Is life meant to be simple? Maddie isn’t really sure.

Maddie has many different shapes, though they’re really just very similar versions of herself. With Dad and Other Dad, Maddie can be as mad as she wants to be. She can speak in Riddlish the entire time, and nobody will look at her weird even once. And with Raven, Maddie uses her madness to be helpful. She offers Raven advice, comforts them when they need it, because Maddie is their friend, and that’s what friends are for.

With her _best_ friends, though, Maddie is a combination of the two, with just a little dash of adventure. 

Alistair is their leader, and he always has the most Wonderlandiful ideas for everything. And Kitty and Lizzie pretend to be mean, but they’re really just big softies. And Bunny is the best, because Bunny will hold Maddie’s face in her hands, and touch Maddie’s lips to her own, and she’ll tell her she loves her.

And Maddie loves her back because not many people have ever really taken the time to love the Mad Hatter’s daughter and those who do usually leave her when they get too sick of her Wonderland-speak.

Maddie really hopes Bunny doesn’t leave her.

Maddie is a Royal. But Maddie is also a Rebel. And she’s also both, and she’s also neither. It really should be that simple - if you want it, you want it, and if you don’t, you don’t, and no one needs to be so _frumious_ about it, not like Headmaster Grimm is frumious about it.

Destiny isn’t really a word in Wonderland. Wonderlandians believe in choice, and Maddie likes that. If Raven doesn’t want to be the Evil Queen, then they shouldn’t have to be! And if Lizzie really wants to be the Queen of Hearts, then who’s to say she can’t be?

Maddie doesn’t like to let it show, but she misses Wonderland. She misses her home, and the flig-quell flowers in her garden, and she misses Other Dad. because the Mad Hatter made it out to Ever After, and the March Hare did no such thing.

Maddie misses Other Dad, and she misses Wonderland’s people, and it’s non-people, and it’s people-nons, and everything about it times three tribtillion. 

At least Alistair and Bunny made it through. Maddie had thought she would never get to see them ever again, and she’s glad that she was wrong about that. She’s glad to see Alistair’s shiny hair and his brave smile, and she’s glad to see Bunny’s big green-blue eyes and her happy rabbit’s ears.

“I missed you so much,” Bunny had said after she’d transformed into a human, and Maddie had immediately hugged her. “I’m glad I’m here to see you.”

And things were different from how they were back in Wonderland, Maddie could tell, because later when they were alone together, instead of talking with Maddie over tea, Bunny kissed her instead.

“Is it ok for me to do that?” Bunny asked.

“It’s tea-riffic,” Maddie said, and she’d put a sugar cube in between Bunny’s lips.

Maddie remembers that she’d gone on a date with Dexter Charming, once, back in first year. It had been nice, but not very right, and at the end of it he had told her, 

“I like you a lot, Maddie, but I just don’t think I _understand_ you.”

And Maddie had let him leave. She hadn’t been upset. She’d just accepted it, because the only person who was going to love Maddie was going to be someone who could love and understand all of her shapes, not just her Ever After one, but her Wonderland one, too, and every one in between.

And Bunny does. Bunny understands Maddie’s shapes, all of them, without having to ask, and without having to think about it.

And Maddie is absolutely, positively, glorigleefully _hat-static_ that she does.

  
  
  


**Dexter Charming -** **_imposter_ **

  
  


**_I can’t regret the things I don’t try // I’d switch it up, but I don’t like change // Only content if things stay the same // Don’t care to watch the story unfold // Hate feeling like I’m not in control_ **

**_“Scrawny” - Wallows_ **

  
  


Dexter Charming is an imposter.

Or at least, he feels like one. When your brother is the perfect prince any father could ask for, good at sword-fighting and damsel-saving and whatnot, and your sister is secretly even better than your brother is in all of those things, there’s not much room left in the equation for you.

So Dexter is a Charming by blood. But he feels like a mistake.

Dad thinks so, too. Dexter can tell in the way his smacks sting harder when Dexter can’t get a stance right, when the bruises stick around for longer if Dexter dares to talk back.

He’s fucked up. Dexter Charming is _royally_ fucked up.

He sort of resents Daring, because Daring doesn’t get any of it. Daring is the wonder-boy, and Dexter and Darling were the accidents. Daring can get away with taking his dragon out for a joyride. Dexter can’t even get away with a B- on his report card.

“What the fuck is _this?_ ” Dad asks him. “ _You wanna tell me why you’re failing a class?_ We send you to a prestigious school and you can’t even keep straight A’s? Fucking _sorry excuse for a Charming._ ”

Somehow, that hurts more than Dexter’s lip, split open when his father’s ring hits him during the backhand that comes quick, sharp as steel.

“I’m sorry,” Dexter says, blood dribbling down his chin. “I’ll try harder. I’ll do better.”

His father scoffs. “No, you won’t. Because you’re worthless.”

“He’s a son of a bitch,” Darling tells him later, as she holds an ice pack to his mouth. Daring is off somewhere with his buddies, probably drinking, feeling up some bar-maiden. “Don’t listen to him.”

Dexter winces at the cold. “I wish it were that easy.”

It isn’t fair. Daring gets to do whatever he wants. He gets to walk down the halls to cheers and swooning girls, with Apple on his arm and a smile that can literally blind you. Dexter gets none of that. He just gets poor social skills and bad vision, and he has no idea who his princess is supposed to be.

Daring gets everything. Dexter gets nothing.

He spends his time with Humphrey in the computer lab, running the school’s website. He may not be good at prince stuff, but he understands coding like nothing else. And Humphrey is there to smile and encourage him when he tells them he has a crush on Raven Queen.

Because Raven Queen is beautiful. Who cares if they’re destined to be evil? They’re amazing, with their pretty purple hair and their mysterious dark eyes, and they always tell the best jokes, and they’re nice, for a child of the Evil Queen.

Dexter is head over heels for them. He spends so much time focused on getting with them, that he doesn’t even notice that Cupid likes him until she tells him, and then he just feels really embarrassed, and guilty because he can’t return the feelings.

“It’s ok,” Cupid says, smiling sadly. “I know.”

“I’m sorry,” Dexter says, for the umpteenth time. 

“Dexter, it’s ok, really,” she tells him. “There are always other pages in the book. I’ll find someone for me, someday.” She looks glum like she thinks that day might never come. “Good luck with Raven.”

But things don’t work out with Raven. They go on a couple of dates with Dexter, but by the end of the fourth one, they’re turning to him and saying,

“I'm sorry, Dex. It took me so long to figure this out, and I thought I could be with you, but I don’t feel romantic love for people. I just _can’t._ It won’t work. I’m sorry.”

“Oh,” Dexter says, feeling his heart sink. “I understand.”

And he does, but he’s still sad about it. Because he thought he’d finally found someone who might love him, and they can’t. Not in that way.

Meanwhile, Daring’s rolling in potential girlfriends. Apple, Lizzie Hearts, Cerise Hood. And Dexter still has nobody.

But Cupid did say that there are always other pages in the book.

And Dex starts to notice little things about Humphrey, almost by accident. The way their face scrunches up all excited when they finish a line of code. The way that they smile at Dexter, in a way that makes his worries disappear. The way that they trust Dexter enough to tell him about their dad, about their mom, and Dexter starts sending the Dumpteys monthly checks, without Humphrey even asking him to.

“Why are you doing this?” they ask him. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I care about you,” Dexter says, and Humphrey smiles, and Dexter’s stomach erupts into butterflies.

Darling comes to him one night, confesses that she’s in love with Apple. And then Daring comes to him, with his own confession, plus an apology.

“I love Rosabella,” he says. “And I’m sorry. For never sticking up for you and Darling. I’m a terrible brother.”

“I think I love Humphrey,” Dex responds. “And I forgive you. You’re not a terrible brother.”

Daring smiles weakly. “Yes, I am.”

Dexter shakes his head. “You don’t have to be.”

Dexter’s life has been hard, and he’s got a lot of demons. But maybe, with the way things are going, he’ll start to feel less like an impostor in someone else’s story, and more like the main feature of his own.

  
  
  


**Justine Dancer -** **_protect_ **

  
  


**_There is blood in my ears and a fool in the mirror // And the bay of mistakes couldn’t get any clearer_ **

**_“Fast Slow Disco” - St. Vincent_ **

  
  


As the daughter of the youngest Dancing Princess, Justine really doesn’t have much on her plate. She gets to dance, which is great because she loves dancing. And she’ll get to do it with her eleven cousins, and Clementine, the eldest, will be stuck marrying whatever old soldier figures out their secret. Justine is a background player - forgotten, really, by the audience.

She is not forgotten, however, by her family. In fact, she thinks she’s remembered a little _too_ much.

She’s the youngest of the group, and therefore the baby of the family. And even though she’s a teenager, and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, all anyone seems to want to do is protect her. Her mother, her father, her aunts, her uncles, her cousins. All of them treat her like she’s helpless and pathetic, and Justine is neither of those things.

She doesn’t need _help._ She doesn’t need _protection._ Because all she wants to do is dance, dance, _dance_ until she can’t feel her feet and her legs can no longer support her body.

Ever After High is her sanctuary. Ever After High is where Justine can hang out with Melody and Meeshell, dance ballet with Duchess Swan, and no one gives her a second glance. All of her cousins have already pledged their destinies and graduated.

The one person here that Justine can’t quite seem to figure out is her roommate. Ramona is a mystery to her - she’s gruff and callous, and she acts just like the villain she’s supposed to be in her story.

When Justine tries to get closer to Ramona, Ramona initially tries to push her away. But little by little, she starts to trust Justine more and more.

“You can tell me what’s wrong,” Justine says, and Ramona ignores her.

“I’m sorry,” Justine tells her when she finds out why Ramona’s so protective of herself. And really, Justine is. She’s sorry that Ramona has to hide who she is, has to pretend to hate her baby sister. 

Justine asks Ramona to dance with her sometimes when Duchess is on date nights with Poppy. And Ramona is reluctant at first, and a little clumsy, but she does it anyway, and it makes Justine smile, her face burn.

And when she finishes her big dance recital, the one where she’d had a solo for two minutes in front of the entire school, Ramona is there in the wings with a bouquet of flowers.

Justine sets the flowers on the ground, throws herself into Ramona’s arms, and kisses her, hard.

“Oh,” Ramona says when they separate. “ _Ok._ ”

“Is that good?” Justine asks.

Ramona smiles. “That’s good.”

At the end of the day, Ramona Badwolf is the only person who really understands Justine Dancer. She understands that she is not a dainty china doll, that she is not a fragile snowflake.

She does not need protection. And Ramona, the most protective and defensive person Justine knows, is able to grasp this more than anyone else.

  
  
  


**Bunny Blanc -** **_zero_ **

  
  


**_It’s always about you // Colors faded // Into an ocean, blue wine breaking // Unless we forget all of our regrets, I’m written with you // I deeply do exalt you, darling, I do_ **

**_“Complicated” - Mura Musa and Nao_ **

  
  


It’s almost funny, how unimportant Bunny is. 

She’s the daughter of the White Rabbit, a side character in a protagonist’s tale. She won’t even have to do much, just run around, complain about how late she is, and serve the Queen of Hearts.

Bunny loves Lizzie, but she doesn’t particularly love the idea of being ordered around like that. And she loves Wonderland, but she doesn’t want to be a bit player in someone else’s fairy tale. 

To be honest, she just wants to live her life the way _she_ wants.

And then there’s the matter of the fact that Bunny is not the White Rabbit’s biological child. He’d never had a wife, never had anyone to have children with, but he’d found Bunny in the Tulgey Wood, abandoned by some good-for-nothing white chess pieces. He’d brought her home, raised her as his own, and he’d given her a family, while she’d given him some company. She’d watched him transform into his animal form until she could do it herself, and no one needed to know that Bunny wasn’t his real child. 

The Grimms certainly don’t know. The only people who really do are Bunny’s friends.

And the White Rabbit isn’t a bad father. Far from it, actually. He’s just a little hare-brained, a little flaky, and not always prepared to take care of another human being. So Bunny spent most of her childhood with her friends, Kitty and Alistair and Maddie and Lizzie, and she was just fine with that. 

But the ugly truth is that her friends have such glamorous destinies laid out in front of them, and Bunny can’t really relate. Kitty gets to cause mischief, and Maddie gets to drink tea, and Lizzie will be a _queen,_ for whiskers’ sake, and Alistair, Alistair is the main character, and he’ll be the one running the whole show.

And Bunny will watch the whole thing quietly from the sidelines, feeling pointless, worthless, _zero._

“You’re _not_ worthless,” Alistair whispers against her lips. “Don’t say those things, Bunny. You’re _everything,_ you’re so important to me, and I can’t live without you.”

And Bunny wants to believe him, she wants, she wants, she wants.

She loves Alistair. He’s the most wonderful boy in existence, and he loves Bunny right back. When the Evil Queen’s curse takes over Wonderland, and the others get away and Bunny and Alistair are left behind, he inspires her to keep going, tells her to keep her head up and try and try. 

Bunny’s had a crush on him since they were kids, and she always used to think that they’d be together forever after, and only have eyes for each other.

But Bunny knows this isn’t true. She knows it in the way Alistair won’t stop talking about Lizzie’s secret brother, in the way his lips quirk up at the edges when he says Chase’s name.

And she knows it in the way she seems to miss Maddie more than anyone else, remembers all the tea parties they had, just the two of them, and the way Maddie would hold her hand underneath the table and laugh and laugh and laugh like summer rain.

So when Bunny and Alistair get to Ever After, and they have a talk about it all, Alistair spends his time holed up in the room he shares with Humphrey Dumpty writing to Chase on his magic paper, and Bunny finds Maddie and kisses her softly, quickly, shyly. 

Maddie’s lips taste like earl grey tea. Alistair’s taste like honeysuckle.

And they help Bunny feel less like a zero. Maddie and Alistair, and Kitty and Lizzie, too, in their own crafty and powerful ways, and Bunny loves them all so much she could burst.

She’s glad that she’s found them all again.

But something’s still missing. Bunny still feels incomplete, unfinished. 

Wrong.

And then she realizes that the White Queen, a teacher at Ever After High, seems very familiar to her. Her looks, her mannerisms, her mouth, her nose, her hair. One letter home to Dad confirms Bunny’s suspicions, and she feels sick when she finds out, even if she knew it a little bit.

“When were you going to tell me?” Bunny demands, shutting the door to the classroom and crossing the floor. “And why did you do it?”

The White Queen sighs. Her hand comes up to brush a stray wisp of hair away from her face, and maybe her hair is white because she’s the White Queen, but maybe it’s also white because she’s _tired._

“I _wasn’t_ going to tell you,” she says. “And I did it because I knew I couldn’t care for you. I didn’t have the time. I was too ruthless, too hungry for land. I didn’t need you to suffer the way I did. And I knew that if I left you in that spot, he would find you, and take you in. And he did. And when I came here, I lost _everything._ My kingdom, my eyes, _you._ ”

But she was never there for Bunny.

Bunny shakes her head. “So that’s my destiny, then. I’m supposed to be the next White Queen, not the next White Rabbit.”

The White Queen looks up at her, and her eyes are old, weary, scarred, and pale. She is blind, just like Bunny has been for so long.

“Be what you want,” she says simply. “But your name is Chiffon White. You are royal by blood.”

And Bunny doesn’t know what to do with that information. She’d always wanted to be a bigger player in her life story. To have a starring role. 

But now she understands that important characters lead difficult lives. That their tales are dark and twisted, nothing like the picture-perfect fables Bunny had imagined. Now she understands that perfectly.

Now she wishes she could just be zero again.

  
  
  


**C.A. Cupid -** **_double_ **

  
  


**_All ‘cause you love, love, love // When you know I can’t love // You love, love, love // When you know I can’t love // You love, love, love // When you know I can’t love // You_ **

**_“Love Love Love” - Of Monsters and Men_ **

  
  


Cupid is a goddess, and she has two hearts.

This isn’t any sort of metaphor - yes, she’s a minor deity of love, and she specializes in romance and helping with relationship troubles, fixing misunderstandings, patching broken marriages, the like. On the surface, she’s already bubbling with love, and of course, she’d have enough to fill two heart’s worth.

But Cupid _literally_ has two hearts in her chest, right next to each other, beating in tandem. One is the heart of the version of herself she is at Ever After High, C.A. Cupid, the daughter of the Roman god of love.

The other heart belongs to the daughter of Eros, the Greek version of her father. She is ancient, powerful, and _ruthless._ She is Agápe, and she is meant to represent universal love. But all she does is _hate._

Agápe was in control when Cupid was at Monster High. The students there hated her because all she did was meddle in affairs, toy with people’s hearts, ruin relationships on purpose. Because love comes with ecstasy and wonder, but it also comes with heartbreak and sorrow, and Agápe had fed off of that and laughed at the consequences of her feast, and it was fitting that she went to Monster High because she really _was_ a monster.

Cupid isn’t that person anymore. And she never wants to be again. When Dad transferred her to Ever After, she became her Roman self, and she stayed that way, thank the _gods._

But if she ever returned to the normal world, Cupid knows Agápe would come back. And she can _never_ let that happen.

Cupid is better now. She doesn’t think about her past life, she lives in the moment, and instead of hurting people, she helps them. She keeps Hunter and Ashlynn’s romance a secret. She helps Kitty and Lizzie get together. She gives Apple advice about a certain Charming girl.

She helps Dexter woo Raven Queen. Dexter, who she falls in love with, and who doesn’t love her back.

But that’s to be expected. Cupid’s powers come with a curse, set by her father in the hopes of keeping her somewhat under control: she can fall in love all she wants, but no one will ever love her back. Not unless they have a god’s blood coursing through their veins, and no one here does, certainly not Dexter.

Cupid hates how her father tries to control her. She hates that she can only love another god. She’s always wanted to have silly flings with mortals, maybe even a few children ( _Venus_ always gets to, and that isn’t fair), but in her four thousand years of life, she has never had the chance. 

But maybe it’s for the best - Cupid is old, even if she looks seventeen, and whoever she loves needs to be able to live comfortably alongside her. A mortal would die after a couple of years, and leave Cupid heartbroken and alone.

Agápe roars with delight at the thought, from deep in Cupid’s chest, and she has to stuff her face with True Hearts Day chocolates to get her to shut up.

She gives up on Dexter and goes on to continue to help others with their love lives. She starts a podcast with Blondie (and Blondie’s smile, and Blondie’s legs) and answers anonymous questions, trying to ignore the dull pains in her hearts that tell her she will never get to love someone the way her friends do, and if she does, they won’t be a student. Because Cupid’s real home is Ever After, not Olympus, and she’d rather settle down here than anywhere else.

But it’s hard to watch all of her peers be happy and in love, while Cupid gets nothing. Cedar and Cerise, Hopper and Farrah, Meeshell and Melody, they’re all so _perfect_ for each other, and Cupid has nobody. No one to hold. No one to touch. No one to hug at night and whisper sweet nothings into their skin.

It makes her hearts ache.

“Hey, Cupid,” Blondie says one day after Cupid’s finished an episode in the recording booth. 

“Hey, Blondie, what’s up?” Cupid asks, and her Roman heart jumps at the sight of Blondie’s pink lips and blue eyes, while her Greek heart swells as Agápe notices that Blondie’s neckline is fairly _low_ today.

Cupid shoves that thought away.

“I was just,” Blondie says nervously, her teeth worrying at her lip. “I was kinda-sorta wondering if maybe you wanted to catch a movie tonight? We could go for dinner in Book End beforehand if you want. Because,” her face flushes a rosy pink, “That would be just right if you did want to do that.”

Cupid blinks. “Ok. Sure, Blondie. As friends?” she asks, even though she knows what the answer will be.

Blondie turns a darker shade of red. “N-No, as...I meant like a _date._ ”

Cupid’s hearts stop.

“If that’s ok?” she can hear Blondie asking, but her voice is foggy-sounding, far away. “Oh, _Grimm,_ I’m sorry, Cupid, did I overstep? You don’t like me that way, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, I - “

“ _No!_ ” Cupid yelps, grabs Blondie by the wrist before she can leave. 

Blondie swallows. “What?”

“I do like you,” Cupid says breathlessly. “I like you a lot. But I’m cursed.”

“What are you talking about?” Blondie asks. “You seem perfectly fine to me.”

Cupid shakes her head. “No, my dad cursed me when I was born. I can fall in love over and over again, but the feelings will only be returned if the person in question is also a god.”

Blondie frowns. “What? This is the first time anyone has ever liked you back?”

“Yes,” Cupid says. “I mean, I’ve, _you know,_ with people before, but it was just physical stuff. They all left the next morning.”

Blondie pales. “But - if I like you back, then that means - “

“You’re a goddess,” Cupid says. “But how is that _possible?_ ”

Blondie sinks into the chair behind the turntables. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Oh, this is just _wrong._ ”

Agápe rumbles happily. Cupid feels terrible.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, Cupid,” Blondie says quickly, grabbing her hands feverishly and holding them tightly. “You’re just right. You’re just right in every way.” She looks down. “I just didn’t know I was a goddess.”

“I guess we should take a second look at that genealogy project,” Cupid hears herself say, and winces when she does.

But Blondie giggles, weakly, yet genuine. “I guess so.”

Cupid’s head is spinning. Someone loves her back, someone loves her back, _someone_ _loves her back._

Someone loves her. And Agápe is already fading away.

“Cupid,” Blondie says suddenly, fiercely. “We can research my family later. But right now, I’m going to kiss you.”

Cupid beats her to it.

Blondie’s lips are soft and warm and _just right,_ and they make Cupid’s hearts soar, make Agápe smile, in a real way, finally.

Because Cupid is _in love,_ and for once, it isn’t one-sided.

  
  
  


**Ashlynn Ella -** **_value_ **

  
  


**_Amber, Amber, Amber // Piece of the whole // The light that’s inside you’s // Starting to show_ **

**_“Amber” - Electric Guest_ **

  
  


Ashlynn is born with value, but it isn’t allowed to manifest.

She’s a princess - therefore she’s automatically special, because she’s a royal, and she’s important. But she doesn’t really get to be a princess for very long - because according to her fairy tale she isn’t supposed to be one yet.

So Ashlynn is plucked from her fancy castle and sent to live in a manor in the countryside, with her father and her stepmother. It confuses her because she knows that her mom and dad care for each other, and were supposed to be each other’s true loves. But here they are, their marriage ripped apart simply because the tale of Cinderella dictates it so.

Ashlynn still gets to see her mother. Mom visits every other weekend, just to check in and see that Ashlynn is living the way she’s supposed to be, cleaning the house, cooking the dinners, waiting on her stepmother and stepsisters hand and foot. Technically, Mom is supposed to die before Ashlynn’s story takes place, but Ashlynn doesn’t like to think about it.

When Cinderella visits her, she sees the work that Ashlynn is doing. She sees her beauty, and her kindness, and her love for wild animals, but instead of complimenting her on it, she congratulates her for taking after her mother so well. And so Ashlynn begins to understand from a very young age that her mother does not really care for her; she only sees the value in Ashlynn’s destiny as the next Cinderella.

Ashlynn doesn’t let it phase her, because she believes in kindness, and living life through songs and shoes and other things that make her happy. But sometimes it’s hard to keep a smile on your face when you’re a servant to every member of your family, not just the evil ones. 

It takes until Ashlynn is fourteen years old before she meets the only person who really sees her value as a girl, not as a player in a tale.

She’s out in the woods one afternoon, bringing water back from the well so she can wash her stepsisters’ dresses. The clouds have been dark and ominous-looking all day, and sure enough, the sky opens up and it starts to pour.

Ashlynn runs to the nearest cave and finds shelter there. She thinks she’s alone.

She isn’t. 

“Who are you?” she gasps, as the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen steps out of the shadows.

“I’m Hunter Huntsman,” he says carefully, eyeing her suspiciously. “Who are you?”

“Ashlynn,” she stammers. “Ashlynn Ella.”

Hunter’s eyes grow wide. “You’re a princess.”

“Yes,” Ashlynn replies, though she doesn’t feel very princess-like in her raggedy, dirty dress. She makes for the mouth of the cave. 

“I should really get back home,” she says.

“No, wait.” Hunter grabs her hand, and it sends tingles up Ashlynn’s spine. 

“It’ll clear up in a few minutes,” he says quietly. “Then you can go.”

“Ok,” she says, smiling, and falls in love with him right there.

She knows she isn’t supposed to. She’s supposed to grow up and go to the festival and wear a glass shoe and marry a handsome prince, not the son of the Huntsman. 

But as she spends more of the summer in the woods with Hunter, introducing him to her wildlife friends and getting to know him better, she realizes it’s not the handsome prince that she _wants._

When Ashlynn starts going to Ever After High, she’s truly ecstatic to be able to interact with more people like her. She makes friends with Briar and Apple, looks down on the Rebels with the rest of them, promises to pledge her destiny to the world, the book, her story, even though every day she feels less and less like she deserves it.

When she sees Hunter on the first day of school, he leads her into an empty classroom and kisses her for the first time.

“ _Wow,_ ” she says breathlessly once they separate, touching her fingers to her lips.

“Sorry,” he says. “I had to. I know we can’t be together. I know you don’t want me.”

He turns away.

“Hunter,” she says. “Hunter, I _do_ want you.”

She kisses him this time. And she knows that no Prince Charming could ever make her feel the way she does when she’s with Hunter.

They keep their relationship secret for a full year and a half. They have so many close calls that it’s ridiculous they keep getting away with it all. But Ashlynn literally has a Fairy Godmother looking out for her - she’s got luck on her side.

“What would you do,” Ashlynn asks Farrah one day in the Castleteria, quietly, under her breath. “If you wanted to be with someone, but couldn’t?”

Farrah blushes. “Why are you asking me?”

Ashlynn smiles. “You’re my Fairy Godmother.”

Farrah twirls a lock of her hair around her finger. “To be honest, I don’t know what I’d do. I think the smartest thing would be to just trust in love and follow your heart, and see where that gets you.”

It’s very good advice, but it’s sort of unhelpful when Duchess Swan finds out about everything and is threatening to tell the whole school.

“Cedar, what should we do?” Hunter asks, and Cedar taps their nose and says,

“I think sometimes the best thing to do is to tell the truth.”

So they do it. They go public with their relationship. And people whisper, and people gossip, and Headmaster Grimm is _furious,_ and Apple won’t speak to Ashlynn, and she almost regrets the whole thing, but she decides that loving Hunter is more important to her than a destiny she was never really meant for.

And that’s when Ashlynn realizes that she’s a _Rebel._ And she stands tall, through Apple’s cold shoulder, through the Headmaster’s horror, through the angry letters from her mother that she refuses to return, because Ashlynn has finally found someone who loves her for who she is, and his name is Hunter Huntsman.

He sees Ashlynn’s true value, and in return, Ashlynn sees his.

  
  
  


**Melody Piper -** **_digital_ **

  
  


**_Don’t call me nice // I’m gonna eat your heart out // I’ve got some work to do // Baby, I’m ready, I’m ready, ready, ready to blow my lid off_ **

**_“When You Die” - MGMT_ **

  
  


For the longest time, Melody could only see herself working digitally.

Her father’s the Pied Piper - so someday, Melody must follow in his footsteps. And when she was a little kid and was hearing about Dad’s legacy left and right, she didn’t want to have to play a dumb horn or a minstrel’s lute. Those were _so_ last chapter. When it comes time for Melody to serenade all of the rats, she’d rather play something a little more modern. Something _digital._ She masters the art of working as a disc jockey and spends her free time working on new tracks because there’s nowhere for her music to go but up.

Of course, if Melody had it her way, she wouldn’t be the next Pied Piper at all. People in the halls at Ever After pretend to like her, download her tracks, ask her to DJ at all the school events, but when they strip all of that away from her, all they see when they look at Melody is a dirty rat, like the ones her father had led right out of town.

But that’s nothing compared to the other thing. Melody would take being called a rat any day over the other thing.

Because the Pied Piper hadn’t just led the _rats_ of Hamelin away. He’d led Hamelin’s _children_ off, too.

There’s a reason Melody has never met her father, has only heard of him in stories, and was raised in an orphanage. Because no one wants to take care of the bastard daughter of a grown man and a sixteen-year-old girl, a girl who thought she knew the Pied Piper, and died in childbirth for him.

Would Dad have taken her in? Melody isn’t sure. She’s been told she can visit him in prison, but she’s not sure she ever wants to do that. He disgusts her. His whole legend _disgusts_ her. Her _destiny_ disgusts her.

She will have to lead more helpless children away from their homes, their families, their parents, just like her father did. And she does _not_ want to do to those kids what the Pied Piper did.

“Rat” she can take. But it’s words like “creep,” “molester,” “pedophile” that Melody can’t bear to hear. It gets to the point where she has only a few real friends, as they were the only ones to get to know her true self.

People are in love with the girl behind the music, and they hate the girl without it. Sometimes Melody wishes she could disappear, become part of her songs, become digital, and just bounce along with the beat of the bass for the rest of her life. 

She hates the name Piper. She hates what it ties her to. She tries not to think about it, throws herself into mixing beats and writing new songs, and voice lessons with Meeshell to broaden her horizons.

“Thank you for teaching me,” Melody tells her, and Meeshell flushes pink, and Melody wants to kiss it off of her. 

“Thank you for making me feel better about my voice,” she replies.

Melody grabs hold of her hand. “Do you think you would sing for me? I could put a sample of your voice on one of my tracks. It would sound really spelltacular.”

Meeshell swallows and looks down. “No one wants to hear me sing.”

“I did,” Melody persists. “I do. Your voice is exactly what I need. It’s perfect; _you’re_ perfect.”

Meeshell’s lips part. “Do you really mean that?”

“ _Yes,_ ” Melody says emphatically. “I mean - “

Meeshell kisses the words away.

Melody debuts Meeshell’s song at Briar’s next party, and it’s an instant hit.

“Thanks for helping me come out of my box,” Meeshell says, kissing Melody’s hand.

Melody smiles. “Of course.”

And months later, when both Meeshell and Melody are freed from their horrible destinies and untied from the Storybook of Legends, Meeshell helps Melody with something. She walks, hand in hand with her, to Nottingham County Prison.

“Father,” Melody says icily, Meeshell right next to her, her eyes full of support and love.

The Pied Piper turns to look at her, his eyes sunken, his flesh ragged, his hair thinning, his face gaunt. He grins, and it looks like someone is stretching his skin wide open, and he looks enough like Melody that it makes her sick to her stomach.

“ _Melody,_ ” he says, and the way he says her name makes it sound like a curse.

  
  
  


**Cerise Hood -** **_mercy_ **

  
  


**_Nor could I ever earn what’s mine // When you’re always taking sides // But you won’t take away my pride // No, not this time // Not this time_ **

**_“Decode” - Paramore_ **

  
  


From the moment she’s born, Cerise knows no mercy.

Mom says that Ramona’s birth was quiet, painless, and over with quickly. Cerise’s was loud, torturous, and took hours. And it’s funny; you’d think it’d be the other way around, seeing as Ramona will be the next Big Bad Wolf, and she was born painlessly, while Cerise will be the hero of her story, and she was born from hurt.

Sometimes Cerise wonders if their destinies ought to be switched. Because Cerise doesn’t always feel particularly heroic - she feels like the bad guy.

She’s not even really supposed to exist, not this way, at least. Mom was supposed to settle down with a nice young man from the village, and have a child who could carry on her destiny as the next Little Red Riding Hood.

Well, she _did_ do that, but not with a village boy. And so Mom and Dad have to hide their romance from the world, or else suffer the consequences.

Cerise is the product of failure, and she knows no mercy. 

She hates all of it. Having to constantly keep her hood up at school to hide her ears. Pretending like she hates Ramona, pretending like they aren’t sisters. Acting like she despises Professor Badwolf, having to watch her mother do the same on parent visiting days. It is torture, to see her loving and wonderful family torn apart like this, and Cerise _hates_ it.

She hates having to hide who she truly is, all because Grimm and the other Fable Purists say so. And there’s no way she can hide forever, either. Secrets never stay secrets for long.

The really big bad part is that Cerise can’t even tell her best friend. Cedar’s so sweet, and they’re the best roommate, and Cerise wants to tell them everything, but the thing is that Cedar would tell everyone at school. And they wouldn’t even be able to stop themself from doing it.

So Cerise ignores the guilty feeling she gets every time she confides in another Rebel that isn’t Cedar, and tries not to stare at them from across their bedroom while they’re getting dressed in the morning.

Is it weird to fall in love with a puppet? It shouldn’t be. Princesses have fallen in love with frogs. Boys have loved dead girls. Mom loves Dad. 

Loving a girl made of wood shouldn’t be a big deal, but somehow, it is. Maybe it’s because of destiny, and Cerise hates that word, but maybe it’s true. 

Destiny is _bullshit._ Destiny tries to keep Cerise’s parents apart. Destiny tells Hunter Huntsman that he must succeed where his father failed and murder Cerise’s sister.

“I would never do that to you,” Hunter promises her. “I couldn’t.” And Cerise believes him because she knows Hunter wouldn’t hurt a fly.

She isn’t sure how exactly it happens.

But suddenly, the whole school knows Cerise’s secret. The Royals are staring and whispering at her as she walks down the halls, the teachers are giving her dirty looks, and eventually Cerise stops bothering to keep her hood up because she knows it’s pointless. Might as well flaunt her flaws proudly.

Headmaster Grimm fires Professor Badwolf. He _fires_ him. Cerise and Ramona have to watch as Dad leaves the school, shame written all over his face.

He should not have to feel ashamed of who he loves, just because other people say that he should.

And as she watches her father sulk away into the sunset, Cerise remembers Cedar.

She apologizes, over and over again, but Cedar understands. And when Cerise leans forward and presses her warm lips to Cedar’s wooden ones, Cedar kisses back.

And it _isn’t_ weird, loving a puppet. People may stare at them, but people were already staring.

Cerise has basically nothing left to lose. 

When Raven destroys the Storybook of Legends, and the matter of destiny is torn from Headmaster Grimm’s hands, Cerise is jubilant. And she knows that Ramona and their parents are, too.

But that doesn’t stop the yearning for _revenge_ that Cerise feels deep in her gut. The want, the primal, wolf-like _need_ to exact her vengeance on the ones who caused her and the people she loves so much pain.

Without destiny, Cerise’s parents could be happy. Without destiny, she and Ramona would never have had to hide. Without destiny, Hunter would never have to kill, Cerise would never have to watch her sister die, and Cedar would have been able to be a real girl, would be allowed to lie as much as they pleased.

But destiny is just a word. There’s a man masquerading as that word, hiding under a hood, and Cerise wants him to feel the pain that she and so many others have suffered at the hands of him and the ones like him.

Cerise swears that someday, she will take her revenge on Milton Grimm. And she will show him no mercy as she rips out his throat.

  
  
  


**Kitty Cheshire -** **_surprise_ **

  
  


**_An eye for an eye // Is a blind man’s rule // I wasn’t born to follow // I’m nobody’s fool_ **

**_“When a Woman Is Around” - Unloved_ **

  
  


Kitty’s whole thing is surprises.

When you’re the Cheshire Cat’s kid, you’ve got a lot to live up to. Sure, Kitty won’t be the Cheshire Cat for a while, but they’ve got to utilize the time that they have. No second can be wasted, and Kitty needs to spend every waking moment being crafty, subverting expectations, playing tricks, and pulling surprises. In other words: making their mother proud.

Part of being a Cheshire is understanding others. It may not be obvious, but in order to pull a truly epic prank, you’ve got to _know_ the person you’re pranking first. That way you’ll know exactly how they tick, what makes them happy, what makes them confused, what upsets them, and what will make them blow steam like a whistle-bird. Then you can catch them at the perfect moment, each surprise tailored to fit each victim. 

That’s how Kitty understands their friends so well. People think they’re malicious, conniving, and all-around careless. And maybe they are, and maybe that’s ok. But after years of following closely in their mother’s paw prints and doing whatever they can to be just like her, watching, waiting, observing from tree branches and other nooks and crannies, Kitty truly, deeply, and intimately knows their friends, to the point where they can predict what they’re going to do at any moment.

They know that Alistair and Bunny will get together, essentially from the first moment they see them together. And then Kitty is able to predict that Bunny and Maddie will have a thing, and later, Alistair and Chase. They know why Courtly Jester is so evil, why Raven Queen rejects their destiny, why Apple White embraces hers, and why Milton Grimm is little more than a puppet for Snow White and the other Fable Purists. Kitty knows all of these things, about children, about adults, about hate, about love - so much so they could probably give Cupid a run for her money.

Kitty sees all these kids hurting, and they hurt along with them. Because they’d love to be the next Cheshire Cat, they really would. If they did, maybe Mom would finally be proud of them, smile at them for real instead of just as a trick. But they also notice the way that the main root of all this pain is that stupid seven letter word, _destiny,_ and they know that if they follow their fate, it could hurt other people in the long run. Kitty is a cat, but they aren’t that selfish. 

At least, they try not to be.

The only person Kitty can’t seem to figure out is Lizzie. They should be able to - Lizzie was their first friend, and tends to scream many of her opinions at the top of her lungs. She’s a relatively open card deck, and the stuff inside isn’t difficult for Kitty to read, either.

It’s just that Kitty’s in love with her, and that sort of complicates things. Kitty’s never been in love before, and they’re not sure how badly it’s clouding their judgment. They would talk to Mom about it, but Mom only hooked up with the Caterpillar’s cousin once, and it was solely for the purpose of creating a child. At least, that’s what Mom tells them. She probably doesn’t have the best grasp on love.

So Mom is out of the question. And maybe Kitty should go to Cupid, Ever After’s resident love guru, but Cupid would make such a big deal out of it, and _squee,_ and _gush,_ and other corny stuff, and Kitty’s always worked better on their own, anyway. They’re a cat - independence comes genetically.

Kitty knows that romance tactics for heroes like Daring Charming (who Kitty sort of resents, because he’d gone out with Lizzie a few times, and almost broken her heart) tend to work out, or at least, they do in the stories. And Kitty’s no Casanova, and _certainly_ no Prince Charming, but maybe that sort of shit works for a reason.

So Kitty decides to write Lizzie a poem. They sit in their hammock with a notepad and pen one afternoon while Maddie’s off with Raven and they think of things to write about.

The problem is, there are so _many_ things to write about when it comes to Lizzie. She’s _perfect._ She’s the most beautiful person to ever exist, ever. She’s commanding and sympathetic all at the same time, and Kitty probably doesn’t deserve her sympathy.

So they write one poem about Lizzie’s hair. And then they write another about her smile. Another about her eyes. Her kindness. Her power. Her croquet skills. Her dressmaking. Her body, her mind, her soul. 

Kitty doesn’t sign any of them, because somewhere, subconsciously, they don’t ever want Lizzie to know it’s them. Kitty will understand when Lizzie tells them that she doesn’t love them back, _couldn’t_ love them back, and Kitty will be all right.

Sort of.

They start leaving the notes places they know Lizzie will find them. Her locker, her books, her card deck, her crown. Each time Lizzie finds one, her eyes light up in surprise, and she smiles big and blushes. Kitty likes to know that they’re the cause of that blush.

They also know that if Lizzie ever found out the truth, she’d be royally disappointed. Lizzie’s so perfect, and Kitty’s so _not,_ and they would never be able to work because Lizzie needs someone equally as important in her life. She needs a prince, not a mangy alley cat.

If only Daring weren’t crown over heels for Rosabella Beauty. Then Lizzie could be happy.

When Lizzie finds out about the poems, Kitty apologizes. And then Lizzie kisses them, and they forget everything else.

“Lizzie,” they say, voice sounding wrecked. “Lizzie, Lizzie, _Lizzie._ ”

“Kitty,” she responds, amused, tracing Kitty’s lips with the tip of a finger.

“Why me?” Kitty asks, and they can feel tears in their eyes. “Why me?”

Lizzie frowns like she doesn’t understand the question. “Why _not_ you? Why anyone else?”

She kisses them again, and Kitty never wants to do anything but love her.

Kitty’s whole thing is surprises, and reading people. They knew that Hunter and Ashlynn would come public with their relationship when they did. They knew that Crystal Winter would snap the way that she did, and take over the Top of the World. They weren’t even shocked when Apple and Darling started going out.

But there’s no way they could have ever predicted Lizzie loving them back. And they’re glad they were wrong because then they wouldn’t get the chance to kiss Lizzie’s red, red lips every day and every night.

  
  
  


**Poppy O’Hair -** **_insistence_ **

  
  


**_I wanna be alive for the rest of my life // To feel the gratitude in givin’ everything I am // Without a promise of anything in return_ **

**_“We’ve Got a Good Thing Going” - Lady Lamb_ **

  
  


Poppy is way too selfless. That’s what her mother has told her her entire life. That’s what her father has agreed with. That’s what her sister has shrugged and nodded along with.

Poppy is too _selfless,_ to the point where it’s sort of her fatal flaw. When she’s told at a young age that Holly is going to be the next Rapunzel, and not her, she smiles and doesn’t pitch a fit. When Holly starts her princess training, Poppy does it with her in support, even though she doesn’t have to. And when Holly is sent to Ever After High, Poppy begs to go with her, even if she has no destiny. 

Poppy loves her sister, and she wants her to be happy. And if that means defending Holly from Rebels who disagree with her Royal position, then that’s what Poppy will do.

Poppy isn’t really _just_ a Royal or _just_ a Rebel herself - it’s more complicated than that. She’s sort of both, a _Roybel,_ if you will, because she supports Holly’s lifestyle, but wouldn’t want it for herself.

And that’s just the thing. People always talk to Poppy like she missed out on something big. They say, “Too bad you couldn’t be in your sister’s place,” and “Do you ever get mad at her for stealing all the limelight?” and “Aren’t you jealous?” But Poppy is _none_ of these things, and she doesn’t hate Holly for embracing her destiny. If Poppy really wanted to be the next Rapunzel, she wouldn’t have chopped off all her hair.

Poppy has never wanted to be Rapunzel, and not just because Holly does want to. Poppy figures she just wasn’t cut out for that sort of life. She doesn’t need a tower and a handsome prince to be happy - she’s perfectly content with getting Hocus Lattes with her sister and giving people cute haircuts.

Poppy is selfless because her parents are selfish; Poppy was never really supposed to exist, and her parents lavish all of their attention onto Holly, and sort of ignore Poppy. Poppy resents them for it. She’d also die for them without question. Family can be very confusing.

But when Poppy finds out that _she_ is the older twin, she freaks. First of all, why wouldn’t her parents _tell her?_ Second of all, why would they pretend otherwise? And third of all, and most importantly, why are they giving Holly so much false hope?

Poppy has spent her entire life giving everything for others, giving everything for her sister. And now, through no real fault of her own, she’s going to rip all that away from Holly forever after. Will Holly hate her? Will she hate the twin who stole her entire life away?

Poppy feels sick to her stomach. She tries calling her parents in order to demand why, but they don’t answer. 

Poppy’s pretty sure she knows why, anyway. Mom says that when they were born, Holly was as beautiful and fresh as a flower. Poppy was born ten seconds before her, her face wrapped in a caul, and when they removed it from her head, she wailed at the top of her lungs. Poppy was the problem child from the beginning, and who would want a girl like that (one born with a _caul,_ no less) to carry on such an important legacy?

Poppy feels terrible. She _can’t_ tell Holly the truth, because it will break her heart. And then she has to ask herself: is it more selfish to tell her, or not to tell her?

She doesn’t know. She doesn’t _know,_ so she runs off to the lake so she can think about what to do, but she just ends up huddled in a ball on the banks of the water, her arms pulling her legs tight against her chest, crying and crying.

“What’s ruffling _your_ feathers?”

Poppy startles and looks up. Duchess Swan is standing in front of her, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

“Where - Where did you come from?” Poppy asks.

Duchess rolls her eyes. “I can turn into a swan, remember? Lakes are kinda my thing?”

Poppy sniffles. “Right. Sorry.”

She expects Duchess to transform back and swim away. But instead, she sits down in front of Poppy, crosses her legs elegantly in the way only a dancer could, and asks,

“Do you want to talk about it?”

And Poppy has never known Duchess all too well, but she tells her everything. Everything about her parents, and her sister, and their stupid, _stupid_ destiny. By the end of it, she’s crying freely again, and she hopes to Grimm she isn’t making Duchess uncomfortable.

“So you can’t decide what to do?” Duchess asks, and her voice sounds much softer than before.

Poppy shakes her head.

“Look,” Duchess says, suddenly seeming very vulnerable. “I don’t talk about this much, because I don’t really like people. But I can tell you need to hear it, so here goes: I’ve struggled a lot with destiny and honesty in the past. I’ve done some things that I’m _really_ not proud of. I’ve tried to ruin people’s lives, just to make my own better. And I wish I never did those things because I was so selfish. I still _am_ selfish. And at the end of the day, if you really love your sister, I think the best thing to do would be to tell her the truth. I should’ve done that more. Maybe I wouldn’t be such a mess if I did.”

Poppy stares. “Duchess, you didn’t have to - “

“Yeah, yeah,” Duchess says, waving her hand. “Whatever.”

Poppy hugs her. “ _Thank you._ ”

Duchess stiffens against her but then relaxes into it. “Sure,” she says quietly, right in Poppy’s ear, and a chill rushes down Poppy’s spine.

Later, Poppy tells Holly the truth. It’s difficult for her, and Holly cries, and Poppy cries some more, and then Holly asks, through tears, 

“Are you sure you don’t want to be Rapunzel? You have the chance to do it. You could take her from me.”

And Poppy wilts. “No, Holly,” she insists. “I could never do that to you.”

Holly smiles weakly. “I love you.”

Poppy feels a wave of relief flood throughout her entire body. “I love you, too.”

“So,” Holly says, holding her pinky out. “This stays between you and me?”

Poppy joins their fingers. “Definitely. You and me.”

Holly, Poppy, and Duchess, actually. People used to tell Poppy never to trust her. But Poppy doesn’t think Duchess will tell. Maybe there’s more to the Swan Princess than people care to find out.

Holly goes on as the star daughter of Rapunzel, and Poppy is still perfectly happy with staying in the background, cutting people’s hair, hanging out with both the Royals and Rebels and getting to know Duchess Swan better.

And she’s ok with that. She really is.

  
  
  


**Blondie Lockes -** **_spare_ **

  
  


**_You’ll find in time // All the answers that you seek // Have been sitting there just waiting to be seen // Take away your pride and take away your grief // And you’ll finally be right where you need to be_ **

**_“Different Now” - Chastity Belt_ **

  
  


Blondie is a spare. The extra girl that no one really likes to hang out with, the surplus student that none of the teachers want in their classes, the one kid leftover when picking bookball teams.

People think she’s annoying. They think she’s obnoxious and nosy, and that she doesn’t know when to draw the line, when to get out of someone’s personal space.

Maybe they’re right. Goldilocks was the same way. Her nosiness and entitlement are what made her famous. And if Blondie’s going to follow in her mother’s footsteps someday, then she has to exhibit those same traits, right? Otherwise, she’s not being the version of herself that Headmaster Grimm and the Storybook of Legends tell her she needs to be.

So Blondie asks questions. And she tells stories. And she uncovers drama, spreads gossip, and reports on all of it. The students at Ever After High resent her - they find her irritating, bitchy, careless. Blondie doesn’t think she’s any of those things. She’s just _curious._

She’s a Royal because she has no problem with her chosen destiny. And she tells everyone that she’s a princess, or at least someone of royal blood, even if it isn’t true. She hates to lie, but she’s afraid the other Royals, Apple and Daring and Briar and everyone, won’t see Blondie’s value if she’s a commoner, or will look down on her as something _lesser._

Blondie is _not_ lesser. She’s just different than the rest. But despite her constant attempts to maintain the lie that she’s a princess, the others still don’t like her. Their faces become fixed, and their smiles go wooden when Blondie enters the room because, to them, Blondie is just a spare Royal that none of them really like that much. The only time anyone genuinely seems to appreciate Blondie is when she’s reporting gossip on her Mirrorcast. And that just makes her feel faker than she already is. 

People don’t take Blondie seriously. They should. Blondie can figure anything out, can unlock any door in a manner of seconds. But people don’t seem to see those things about her, so she strives as much as she can to prove her worth. Because if she doesn’t, they’ll all forget about her and her story. 

Blondie doesn’t want to be forgotten.

When she has to draw up her family tree for class, she’s terrified. She can’t whip up a fake royal bloodline in two days! How is she supposed to tell the class that her mother isn’t a queen, but rather, the mayor of her home town?

But Cupid helps her out. Cupid says, “It’s ok,” and “Be honest,” and Blondie feels better about it. When she presents her family tree, she can see people scoff at her from their seats in the lecture hall. But Blondie just finds Cupid’s eyes, and Cupid nods and smiles, and Blondie’s stomach feels all fluttery, like bad porridge swirling around.

Blondie has always had a crush on Daring Charming. Who wouldn’t? He’s perfect, and he’s got yellow hair, and bright shiny teeth, and _all_ the girls like him, so Blondie likes him. Blondie likes Daring because she’s _supposed_ to like Daring.

When she starts to catch feelings for Cupid, she’s very confused and very afraid. Cupid is her roommate, Cupid is a girl, and Cupid is a _love goddess!_ Blondie has even less of a chance with Cupid than she did with Daring, and that’s saying something. 

It’s just that Cupid’s so pretty, and sweet, and soft-looking, and so just right that it _hurts._ Of _course_ Blondie loves her - she’s incredible.

When Blondie finally musters the courage to tell Cupid how she feels, Cupid breaks her heart.

Cupid loves her back, and that’s amazing. Blondie kisses Cupid, and Cupid’s lips taste like spiced honey, in a way that makes Blondie want to kiss them forever just for taste alone, and her skin is as soft and smooth as Blondie had imagined. Later, Blondie will find out that that spiced honey taste is ambrosia, the food of the gods. And the reason Blondie finds it so addicting is because - 

“You’re a goddess,” Cupid says. “It’s the only way you could love me.”

Blondie doesn’t understand. She isn’t a _goddess._ She _couldn’t_ be. Goldilocks is human, and Blondie never knew her father, and if he was the godly one, wouldn’t that make her a demigod, then?

But Cupid says her lover can only be 100% god. 

So Blondie calls her mother.

And her mother tells her, tears in her voice, that Blondie has no father. No one ever loved Goldilocks growing up. They found her annoying and ditzy, and Goldilocks had no one, even after her story and her rise to popularity. So she’d prayed to the old gods, every night by the hearth, for a child, because a child was all she ever wanted. And Vesta, who had already admired Goldilocks for her dedication to the home and to family, granted her with one.

Vesta is a virgin goddess, and Goldilocks is a virgin woman, but Blondie is somehow the child of both of them.

“I don’t understand,” Blondie says. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

And her mother tells her, “I couldn’t. No one could know. Not even you. I couldn’t risk you telling people.”

So Goldilocks couldn’t even trust her own daughter with the secret of her birth. How just wrong is that?

“Vesta,” Blondie tells Cupid. “Tell me everything about Vesta.”

And Cupid does. She tells Blondie how Vesta is the goddess of the hearth and the home. How she sees all and knows all. How her warmth and kindness spreads to everyone, how she’s never had any children of her own, but she sometimes grants people with creations of hers, for family, for happiness. And Blondie understands that she and Vesta aren’t too different. 

But she’s still Goldilocks’s daughter, too. 

Maybe people will think twice the next time they leave Blondie out, call her a spare. They will stare in the hallways, and they will _envy_ Blondie’s _power._

Blondie Lockes isn’t a princess. But she _is_ a goddess, and so is the woman she loves.

And maybe that’s _just right._

  
  
  


**Nina Thumbell -** **_childish_ **

  
  


**_I see color raining down // Feral feeling, swaying down // But I don’t know what you want // I am open and I am restless // Let me feel it out, let it all come out_ **

**_“Alligator” - Of Monsters and Men_ **

  
  


Nina may be small, but she is not a child. 

People treat her like one. They see how short she is, how her height barely allows her to see inside her locker, how she never gets to ride the coasters at the amusement parks, and they think her size is indicative of her personality. They think Nina is shy, bashful, a shrinking violet. They think she is helpless, pathetic, and _dumb._

She is none of these things. Just because her mother was born the size of a thimble, and Nina will be the same once she carries out her destiny, doesn’t mean she isn’t powerful, and it doesn’t mean she can’t fend for herself.

Nina has always had to fend for herself. Thumbelina died giving birth to her - the Flower-Fairy Prince did not want her. He turned her out of his kingdom, repulsed at her abnormally large size, and Nina was left on her own.

She managed to get taken in by a human orphanage, and she spent most of her time there getting picked on by the other kids for her height, and not getting adopted.

Nina forgot about the Flower-Fairy Kingdom. She forgot who her mother was. She believed she had been left on the doorstep of the orphanage for so long, that when Milton Grimm came to her when she was fourteen and told her what she was, she almost didn’t believe him.

But she did believe him because she knew she had powers. Nina’s powers are nothing special - mostly plant-based stuff, plus she can grow and shrink to certain extents. That’s how she’s able to look human. Most people don’t even realize that she’s a fairy at all.

Nina has no fluttery wings, no magic wand, no fancy pixie dust. Even when she tells people that Thumbelina was her mother, they only pay attention to that part, and not the fact that Nina is half-fairy on her dad’s side. She doesn’t like to brag about it - she doesn’t want to boast about _anything_ her father gave her.

She doesn’t like boasting from anyone, and that’s why she dislikes her roommate, Jillian Beanstalk, at first. Jillian is an open book - she doesn’t care if people know she’s part giant, or that her dad’s a sorry drunkard. She uses her height to her advantage while she plays on the hex-ket-ball team, dunking ball after ball into the hoop for Ever After, while Nina watches from the sidelines with the rest of the cheer squad, and tries not to stare at Jillian’s calves too much.

Slowly and over time, Nina comes to understand that Jillian doesn’t brag; she just doesn’t hide anything about herself, not like Nina, who’s secretive. And maybe Nina admires that about her more than she’d like to admit. They start to become friends. And then they’re inseparable, Jillian defending Nina and Nina defending Jillian.

It all comes to a head in Wonderland. One minute, Nina is in her Crownculus class, trying not to fall asleep, and the next she’s at the Queen of Hearts’ birthday party. Raven Queen is announcing loudly that everyone is free from destiny, and the Storybook of Legends becomes shimmering dust in their fingers.

“How about that?” someone says, and Nina turns and smiles.

“You’re free,” she tells Jillian.

Jillian grins. “We all are.”

And she lifts Nina up and kisses her.

And when Nina visits the Land of the Giants with Jillian to find her mother, and when Jillian goes with Nina to the Flower-Fairy Kingdom to confront her father once and for all, Nina feels anything but childish.

  
  
  


**Crystal Winter -** **_offend_ **

  
  


**_How can I say this without breaking? // How can I say this without taking over? // How can I put it down into words // When it’s almost too much for my soul alone?_ **

**_“Hurts Like Hell” - Fleurie_ **

  
  


Crystal doesn’t mean to offend. 

She’s perpetually pretty harmless - she doesn’t know many powerful spells. Most of her magic is all just glitz and glam; for show, not for fighting. She spends all of her time having snowball fights with her servants, playing ice hockey with her dad, and going figure skating with her mother. She has pixies and frost elves to assist her with everything she could ever need help with. She doesn’t even know how to tie her shoes on her own!

Crystal knows that one day she will have to grow up. She’ll have to throw out all the ice skates and the fun times, and get serious, so she can rule the Top of the World properly. Of course, she won’t have to be _completely_ ice-cold - Dad isn’t, and he rules just fine.

But for now, Crystal is free to do whatever she wants, and so she does, and she swears to herself she’ll never become all stuffy and freezing. And she knows her subjects probably think she’s an airhead, but she doesn’t even care. She’s not _offending_ anyone by having fun.

Crystal lives her life carefree and totally positively - which is why when Jackie Frost and North Wind infect her parents with evil, Crystal is totally unprepared for the consequences.

The Snow King becomes cruel. People in the world below have always gossiped about him. They curse his name every time there’s a blizzard, call him a wicked old tyrant. They only say these things because they’ve never seen him - if they had, they’d know that the Snow King is a fair and just ruler, looked up to and admired by his subjects, and he isn’t a tyrant at all.

But when that minuscule speck of Magic Mirror dust worms its way into the Snow King’s eye, he becomes exactly the sort of monarch outsiders think he is. And his wife, the Snow Queen, Crystal’s beautiful, kind-hearted, caring mother becomes an icy bitch, and a conniving fiend.

Crystal’s parents aren’t what they used to be, so Crystal leaves the Top of the World, heartbroken, and seeks help at Ever After High.

Crystal has been home-schooled her entire life, but it doesn’t mean she hasn’t made friends. So she finds Briar and Ashlynn and begs them to help her fix everything.

And Briar and Ashlynn, plus Blondie Lockes and Faybelle Thorn and Rosabella Beauty and Daring Charming, go with Crystal to track the Roses of the Seasons, and to put a stop to Jackie and North Wind once and for all.

But they’re too late. By the time they make it to the Top of the World with all four Roses, Jackie has stolen the Snow King’s staff and used it to her advantage. And she’s done horrible, _horrible_ things with it.

The blood of Crystal’s parents spatters the throne room floor.

“ _How,_ ” Crystal sobs, as her friends look on in horror. “ _How could you do this?_ Oh my god, _Mom. Dad._ ”

Jackie sneers. “When you want something bad, you’ve gotta be prepared to let nothing stand in your way.”

“ _I’m sorry,_ ” Crystal says to her friends, tears streaming down her face as she tries not to look at the corpses of her mother and father. “It was all for nothing. All of this...and now we can’t even use the Roses.”

Faybelle’s holding the flowers. They’ve been acting very strange this entire time. They look down at the Roses and then back up at Crystal. 

“Take them,” Faybelle says, shoving the Roses into Crystal’s hands. “I - I don’t need them, anyway. If you can’t use them for your parents, use them against Jackie and North Wind.”

Crystal looks down at the flowers in her hands.

“Isn’t this _touching?_ ” Jackie asks. “Too bad none of you will last to see it through.”

She levels the staff, not at Crystal, but at her friends.

In the past few days, Crystal has lost everything. Her wand, her trust in her servants, her kingdom, her _parents_ . She is _not_ going to lose her friends, too.

Crystal may have been helpless before, and she may have been spoiled, but now she is _strong._

The Roses dissipate, and energy thrums through Crystal’s body. She’s never felt this much _raw power_ before. She feels... _invincible._ Like she could do anything she wanted. Like she could force people to bow down at her feet, grovel before her. She’s never felt this way before. 

She _loves it._

When Crystal’s through, Jackie Frost and North Wind’s bodies lie crumpled and unmoving, their necks bent at awkward angles.

“ _Oh my Grimm,_ ” Blondie is sobbing. “ _Oh my Grimm, oh my Grimm._ ”

Crystal turns around. Her friends shrink away from her, and more power courses through her blood. They _should_ be afraid of her. They should be afraid of what she can do. 

“Run,” she tells them, shaking, vibrating, and they do.

Once they’re gone, Crystal drops to her knees and lets out a scream. This scream is her awakening, her descent, her death and rebirth all in one. She has fallen, but she is rising once more, like a phoenix from ashes, and no one will _ever_ underestimate her power again.

The blizzard down below stops, and triples at the Top of the World. The penguins transform back into servants and cower. Windows shatter. Ice cracks.

Crystal grabs her father’s staff. “Get rid of them,” she growls, pointing at the bodies, and her servants rush to do so.

Crystal has suffered through too much in too short a time. She is not going to be a kid anymore. She’s done playing _nice._

The next time someone tries to hurt her or her friends, she will end their life as quickly as snuffing out a candle. She will show them no mercy, and she will laugh when they scream.

Crystal Winter is made of ice. And she will never break again.

The world below can send their armies. _Let them try._ Crystal will slay them all, cut them down one by one.

But, if they’re lucky, it won’t come to that. She won’t have to deal with any unwanted visitors. If they don’t bother her, she won’t bother them. They can coexist peacefully, they can. 

After all, Crystal doesn’t _mean to offend._

  
  
  


**Ginger Breadhouse -** **_limit_ **

  
  


**_Long nights, daydreams // Sugar and smoke rings, I’ve been a fool // But strawberries and cigarettes always taste like you_ **

**_“Strawberries and Cigarettes” - Troye Sivan_ **

  
  


There’s only so much of it Ginger can take before she snaps.

Being the daughter of the Candy Witch isn’t all sugary sweets and baking contests (and Ginger wishes it was, she really, really does). In the grand scheme of things, Ginger’s mother may not be as diabolical as the Evil Queen or the Dark Fairy or the Sea Witch, but she’s still a cannibalistic child-eating freak.

At least, that’s what people _think._ Because Ginger knows the Candy Witch, knows the _real_ her, not the villain in the tales. Mama is sweet and kind and intelligent, and she wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone attempt to bake children alive.

Hansel and Gretel weren’t innocent little twelve-year-olds when they came upon Ginger’s mother. They were full-grown adults, they were witch-hunters, and most important of all, they weren’t siblings. They were _lovers._

They came to Mama’s house with the express purpose of shooting her through the heart, tying a noose around her neck, burning her at the stake. So Mama stalled them the only way she knew how: with her tantalizing desserts and addicting sugar treats. Once Hansel and Gretel wised up, they trapped Mama in the oven and ran, thinking they’d seen the last of her. At least, that’s what they’d told everyone who’d asked.

Mama is still very much alive. You can’t kill a witch by trapping her inside of something - she’ll be able to get out just fine. But everyone thinks Mama is dead, and Ginger has to pretend that she is, so no one else discovers their secret.

Ginger was born from an oven, her skin made of gingerbread, her eyes made of licorice, her clothing frosted on. And with a snap of Mama’s fingers, Ginger became a real boy.

“Mama, I don’t think I _am_ a boy,” she’d told her one day, and Mama had smiled and hugged her tight, fed her a ginger cake, and kissed her forehead. 

When Headmaster Grimm comes for Ginger, Mama has to hide in the cellar, and Ginger has to make like she’s lived alone her entire life.

“Mr. Breadhouse,” Grimm starts, and Ginger coughs.

“ _Ms._ Breadhouse,” she corrects.

Grimm looks flustered. “Right, fine. I am here to cordially invite you to attend Ever After High.”

That’s where the trouble really starts. Because Ginger will someday be expected to follow in her mother’s footsteps - she was planning on doing it anyway, just not in the way Hansel and Gretel told it. Ginger wants to be a Candy Witch, but she does not want to be labeled a cannibal along the way. Gods know she already gets funny looks and whispers about her dresses, her hair, her jawline. The child-eating stuff makes all of that ten times worse.

Helga and Gus Crumb (who have to pretend that they have different parents, that they’re cousins instead of siblings) know the true story. Ginger can tell by the way they eye her in the hallways. She hopes the looks on their faces are ones of sympathy and not hatred.

But that’s probably too much to ask.

She can take the things thrown her way, but sooner or later, she’s going to reach her limit. 

Ginger calls home all the time, as quietly as she can without Melody (who’s usually out with Meeshell, anyway) overhearing. Just to check in on Mama, trade recipes with her, tell her about school. Every time she calls, Mama asks her if there are any girls that have caught her fancy, and every time, Ginger tells her no.

Until she doesn’t. Because Holly O’Hair is absolutely stunning. She styled Ginger’s hair for her at the salon once, and now Ginger goes back there all the time even when her hair looks great. She makes sure to get one of Holly’s chairs every time, and pointedly ignores the knowing looks Poppy gives her.

Holly gives Ginger hair advice. Ginger gives Holly baking advice. And suddenly, they’re spending all the time they can with each other, in between classes, after school, on the weekends.

Cerise tells Ginger she should just go for it. And it’s silly that she says that because it took her so long to tell Cedar how she felt.

But one day they’re baking red velvet cake in the school kitchens, and they get in a food fight, and Ginger gets flour in her face, and Holly gets cream cheese frosting in her hair, and they laugh and laugh and Holly kisses her.

Ginger jerks back in surprise.

“Oh,” Holly says, frowning. “I’m sorry. Was that wrong?”

Ginger swallows and shakes her head. “No. _No_ \- Please, do it again.”

She does. And Mama laughs sweetly over the phone when Ginger tells her about it.

Everything is so amazing.

And then Ginger reaches her limit.

It’s a particularly bad day - it shouldn’t be, because it’s the Spring Fairest festival, and Ginger is participating in the bake-off. But when Ginger starts working at her station, Gus and Helga Crumb snicker at her, whisper loudly and cast her sideways glances.

Finally, Ginger slams down her measuring cup in frustration. A crack splinters through the glass at the blow. And when Ginger opens her mouth to say something, Helga remarks, 

“ _Wow,_ Breadhouse. Try not to drop your cake with those big _man-hands_ you’ve got.”

Ginger runs away to the sound of Gus’s high-pitched cackling and is glad that Holly didn’t see it happen.

And then, while she tries not to pay attention to the frantic texts from her girlfriend, Ginger falls head-first into Wonderland. And there, everything’s as crazy messed-up as she is.

She tries to tell Holly where she is, but her Mirrorphone doesn’t work here. And Ginger hopes that Holly doesn’t resort to nervous-smoking in her absence.

Ginger spends a while in Wonderland, helping the White Knight, trying to find a way home. When she does get back, Holly is there waiting for her, and Ginger throws herself at her and kisses her, kisses her hard.

And then when she goes back to Wonderland, when they all go there, and Raven sets them all loose, Ginger holds Holly’s hand and calls Mama to tell her that she’s finally free. And so is Ginger.

For the first time in her life, Ginger feels _limitless._

  
  
  


**Hunter Huntsman -** **_provide_ **

  
  


**_When you move // I’m put to mind of all that I want to be // When you move // I could never define all that you are to me_ **

**_“Movement” - Hozier_ **

  
  


Huntsmans are hunters - they have always been and they will always be - and so Hunter is one, too, like his father, and his father before him, and his father before him, etc. etc.

Hunter learns how to track deer and foxes and other animals in the woods, even after it’s just snowed. He can hear a mountain lion creeping from thirty feet away. His father teaches him how to wield an axe so he can chop open the Big Bad Wolf, his mother teaches him how to run fast to alert Apple White of her doom at the hands of Raven Queen. Hunter knows everything about hunting and everything about his destiny.

The problem is, he doesn’t want it. 

When he’s six years old, and he catches his first rabbit, Father tells him to shoot it and put it out of its misery.

“Come on, Hunter,” he says. “Just kill it.”

Hunter sees the rabbit in the snare, watches as its nose twitches and its body quivers with fear. He raises his rifle, his hands shaking.

He can’t do it. Father does it for him, and Hunter jumps as the shot sounds, and the rabbit’s body goes limp, blood spreading across the leaves of the forest floor. 

“How will you be a proper Huntsman,” Father demands. “if you can’t even kill a rabbit?”

It’s sort of unfair that he should say that, because when it came down to it, Father could not kill the Big Bad Wolf. He knew he was supposed to, he knew he had to save Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, but he pleaded, and the wolf felt sorry and set them free of his own accord.

Hunter understands why he couldn’t do it. Because Waya Badwolf is a wolf, but he’s also a man. And killing a human is much different than killing an animal.

Hunter just wishes his father could understand that Hunter doesn’t want to kill animals, either.

Mother tuts at Hunter when Father tells her he couldn’t kill the rabbit. She scolds him as she takes the corpse and skins it clean within seconds, cuts off the paw, and hands it to him.

“Here,” she says. “Maybe you’ll be _lucky enough_ to kill it next time.”

The first chance he gets, Hunter buries the rabbit’s foot in the ground by the trap, and he cries over the grave. He cries until a squirrel throws a nut at him to get him to stop, chatters at him like its laughing when he glares at it.

“Pesky,” he growls, and Pesky becomes his first friend. The Huntsmans live deep in the woods, and hardly ever see other people. The most Hunter’s seen is the market in the kingdom, where he can get a glimpse of Cinderella’s castle and wonder what it’s like inside.

Hunter loves wildlife, so it only makes sense that a squirrel is his friend. And as annoying as Pesky can be, at least he helps Hunter untie snares and open traps when Father isn’t watching.

Hunter wants to be a giver, not a taker. If he’s fortunate enough to live on the earth, then he wants to protect it in return. He doesn’t want to _steal_ from it.

This is why, out of his two destinies, Hunter prefers Snow White’s. All he has to do there is work for Raven Queen, and tell Apple to run when he’s sent to kill her. That way, he’s on the right side of things - he’s remembered as a noble hero, and he’s helping someone escape danger.

In Little Red Riding Hood, he’s _taking_ a life instead of saving one. He doesn’t want to kill Ramona. And he knows his father is going to force him to, anyway, make Hunter right his own wrong.

Hunter won’t be able to stomach it. He won’t. His parents don’t understand it. They don’t understand him. No one understands Hunter.

Except for Ashlynn. They meet the summer before classes start, and Hunter knows who she is immediately. Even if he didn’t know her to be the daughter of Cinderella, he’d know that she’s a princess - she looks like one.

They hang out together most days, while Hunter is neglecting his work and Ashlynn is fetching water, or out on a walk (she tells her stepmother that the forest air helps her concentrate on her sewing, but this means she _actually_ has to sew when she’s with Hunter). But she can never stay for long, and Hunter always misses her every time she leaves.

It’s one day, where Hunter is chopping wood (the one task he doesn’t mind doing) and Ashlynn is darning a pair of her stepsister’s tights, that her needle breaks. Without missing a beat, she stands up, spreads her arms wide, and opens her mouth to sing the most beautiful tune Hunter has ever heard. A pair of blue jays whisk by almost immediately with a sharpened piece of straw, and Ashlynn pats them both on the head, sits back down and resumes her sewing like nothing even happened.

Hunter stares at her. She looks up at him.

“What?” she asks. 

“Nothing,” Hunter mumbles, hoping his blush doesn’t show on his face. “That was - That was really pretty.”

She smiles. “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

And that’s the exact moment Hunter realizes that he has to marry this girl someday, destiny be damned. 

He knows they can never be together. Ashlynn’s a princess, destined to marry a prince, and Hunter’s a lowlife Huntsman. He doesn’t even know if Ashlynn feels the same way or just sees him as a friend - but Hunter is utterly and _completely_ in love with her.

On the first day of school, he pulls her aside, and before she can get a word out, he kisses her. Her lips are just as soft and sweet as he’d always imagined.

“I’m sorry,” he says, pulling away when she doesn’t kiss him back. “I’m sorry, but I needed you to know how I feel. I know you don’t want me. I should - “

She holds his hand. “Hunter, I _do_ want you.”

“You - You _what?_ ”

She smiles.

Hunter’s heart races. “Ashlynn, if you’re messing with me right now, I - “

“I’m not,” she tells him. “I wouldn’t mess around with love.”

She kisses him this time, and Hunter feels more alive than he’s ever felt when he’s hunting.

It’s going to be hard to hide everything. They aren’t supposed to be together. Some day, Ashlynn will marry someone else.

But maybe she won’t have to. Maybe, despite her Royal future, Ashlynn is a Rebel. And Hunter finds it sad that she should feel so self-conscious simply for loving someone.

Maybe Hunter can’t give Ashlynn a palace and shoes made of glass. Nut love, and warmth, and happiness, and safety? He _can_ give her that. And she can give it back to him in return.

They provide for each other. Why does destiny say that that’s such a crime?

  
  
  


**Faybelle Thorn -** **_betray_ **

  
  


**_You know it’s crazy, baby // How I still see you in my sleep // And I can’t shift the way you’re always on my mind, mind // But I don’t know where to turn // But if you want to change your mind // I’ll take you and we’ll run_ **

**_“Black Magic” - The Amazons_ **

  
  


Faybelle Thorn was born to betray. Their mom is about as classic of a traitor as it gets - Lucinda Thorn was supposed to work alongside the other fairies, but she left them, instead, and then gave Briar Rose a curse when she was supposed to give her a blessing.

Lucinda died shortly after Faybelle was born. The Sleeping Beauty’s prince took one look at the wailing infant on the floor of the cavern, and plunged his saber through the Dark Fairy’s chest without a second thought. He might have even killed Faybelle too - if the Good Fairies hadn’t stopped him and turned his course toward the lady in the tower.

Faybelle knows that their mother was pure evil. But she was still a _mother,_ and Faybelle never got the chance to get to know her. So Faybelle follows their destiny, in order to keep the memory of their mother alive, and make her proud the only way they can - by doing what she did.

Of course, this means that someday Faybelle will die. Briar’s prince will find them, and he will kill them just as Lucinda was killed.

But that’s a long way down the line, and Faybelle currently has bigger things that they need to be worrying about.

They’re like, the _opposite_ of Raven Queen. Faybelle loves their destiny and does everything they can to make that fact known. They cheat off of tests. They curse people in the halls. They try and hide thumbtacks in places they know Briar will accidentally stab her fingers on them. That’s what they’re _supposed_ to do, that’s what _Lucinda_ did, and that’s what _Faybelle_ will continue to do.

And above all, they are a traitor. They help the other team out during sports. They spread gossip like it’s a disease. When the Evil Queen rises to power over Ever After, Faybelle joins her immediately, even though Briar begs them not to.

Well, even if Faybelle’s not going to be Briar’s Dark Fairy, they’re still going to be _evil,_ because that’s what Lucinda would have done. Briar just doesn’t understand.

Except maybe she understands a little too well. See, that’s the problem: Briar is the hero of her story, and Faybelle is her villain. Briar is supposed to prick her finger on Faybelle’s enchanted spinning wheel and fall into a century-long sleep that only her prince can wake her from, and that prince will ruin Faybelle until nothing is left of them but a memory.

Everyone knows this, so why is it an issue? Well, the problem is what people _don’t_ know: Faybelle is in love with Briar, and they’re pretty sure Briar feels the same way. 

What would Lucinda say if she knew that Faybelle had fallen for their enemy? Faybelle has no idea; Lucinda is dead, and Faybelle never really knew her well enough to understand the kind of person she was, outside of evil, and that’s just what other people told them.

At least they know Milton Grimm wouldn’t approve.

And Faybelle and Briar...they aren’t even _together._ They’ve sort of been dancing around each other for the past couple of years, while Faybelle pretends to hate Briar and Briar kisses boys at parties. Probably the reason why they haven’t done anything yet is that they know it would be frowned upon.

Hunter Huntsman and Ashlynn Ella are together, and since the shock has died down, everyone seems to be relatively ok with that. But Hunter isn’t supposed to kill Ashlynn, and Ashlynn’s prince isn’t supposed to murder Hunter. 

They don’t have it easy. But they have it _better,_ and Faybelle resents them for it a little.

The real trouble comes with the motherfucking Mob Fairies. So Faybelle doesn’t feel like cleaning the entire castle top-to-bottom, sue them! They honestly don’t think they deserve the punishment, especially since they’re _supposed_ to do bad things like side with the Evil Queen, and they actually helped take her down in the end. But Headmaster Grimm doesn’t seem to care about any of that at all.

“200 years of hard labor,” the Fairies say. “Unless you find something good enough to change our minds.”

Faybelle does. They find the Roses of the Seasons and promise the Fairies that they’ll get them, even if it means betraying their friends in the process.

But although Faybelle is supposed to be a traitor, they really don’t like the idea of going behind their friends’ backs. Especially if Briar is one of them.

It’s when they’re all at Briar’s castle, while Crystal is totally helpless and Ashlynn is trying to save her from making a complete fool of herself, and Blondie only seems to care about filming everything for her show, and Daring and Rosabella are making googly-eyes at each other in the corner, that Briar comes to Faybelle and whispers, right into their ear, 

“What are you hiding?” 

And Faybelle, suppressing a shiver, says, “ _Nothing,_ Beauty. Step off.”

She arches an eyebrow. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

Faybelle turns to face her. “Seriously, Briar, I’m not up to anything. Can you just - “

But Jackie Frost shows up and douses them all in Spindle Dust before they can finish. 

“ _Shit,_ ” Faybelle mutters and then passes out.

They dream about their story. They’re the Dark Fairy, and they’re drawing Briar closer and closer, beckoning to her, leering and tapping their fingers on the side of the spinning wheel, and Briar’s eyes are glowing yellow, and she’s holding out her finger to touch the point of the spindle - 

And Faybelle reaches out and stops her. And they smile, and the spinning wheel disappears, and Briar’s eyes turn back to normal, and she smiles back, and then they kiss.

Faybelle jolts awake, and from the look in Briar’s eyes, she‘d seen the same exact vision.

“I think,” Ashlynn is saying. “I think that showed us what we most wanted. I saw Hunter as my true love. Crystal saw her parents, happy again. It’s what we most desire in the world.”

Well, that just makes everything even _more_ complicated, and now Briar won’t meet Faybelle’s eyes.

_Fuck._

And later, when Crystal’s parents are dead and Jackie Frost is glaring at them all, Faybelle makes up their mind that they’re going to do it. They’re going to steal the Roses, they’re going to betray their friends one last time, and they’re going to pay off their debt, everyone else be damned.

But when Crystal needs a weapon to use against Jackie, Faybelle discovers that they _can’t_ do it. They _can’t_ be a traitor. Because they love their friends, and they love Briar, and Crystal deserves better than that. Crystal deserves to take her revenge on the one who killed her parents.

Faybelle understands _revenge_ perfectly. It’s part of their story.

So they hand the Roses over to Crystal, and think, bitterly, 

_Maybe Briar will visit me while I work for 200 years._

But then Crystal snaps, and they all escape the Ice Palace just in time, and the Mob Fairies show, and Daring, _Daring_ signs Faybelle’s contract for them.

Faybelle’s grateful enough to kiss him, except they’re too in love with Briar, and Daring’s too in love with Rosabella for Faybelle to do that to him.

Instead, they turn right around and kiss Briar. And they don’t _care_ about the gasps, and they don’t _care_ about the stares, because they’ve been waiting for this kiss their whole life.

Briar rolls her eyes and says, “Took you long enough,” and Faybelle sighs exasperatedly and kisses her again.

Maybe Lucinda would hate them for it, but this is the destiny that Faybelle is choosing. And they are never going to betray it again.

  
  
  


**Raven Queen -** **_sister_ **

  
  


**_It’s time that I let go // Of things I can’t control // The path that I’ve taken is the only one I know // Well, I’ve come so far to get here // And I’ve got so far to go // So I’ll take what I can get // In matters of the soul_ **

**_“A Trick of the Light” - Villagers_ **

  
  


Raven’s story is simple, and they don’t want any of it. All they’re meant to do is treat Apple like dirt, be insanely vain and insanely jealous of her, poison her, and eventually fall at her hand. Or Daring’s hand. _Someone’s_ hand, anyway. Maybe even their own. 

That’s what Raven’s destiny is: horrible, short, and just. For Apple, at least.

Everyone understands this. Anyone who looks at Raven’s story, at Apple’s story, understands that they’re evil. A horrible temptress. A tyrant. A _witch._ Just like their mother.

Raven is none of these things (at least, they hope so), and they are _especially_ not like their mother (they hope, they hope). 

According to their story, Raven is cold, ruthless, emotionless, and unfeeling, their only true passion being power. That’s what Mom was. That’s what they’re meant to be. Raven is a loveless husk, an empty creature, an animal devoid of heart and devoid of hope.

But Raven _has_ hope. Hope that their story will turn out ok. Hope that Apple won’t hate them forever for it. Hope that the rest, all the other kids whose lives have been ruined by destiny and by Milton fucking Grimm will be all right in the end.

And Raven _has_ heart. Raven has so much heart that they don’t know what to do with it. They love Maddie, their best friend forever after and always. They love their father, even in his sadness and his melancholy. They love the students at Ever After High, the Rebels and Royals alike, and they pity them because none of them ever got a say. Their lives were always preordained. It isn’t fair.

A small part of Raven loves their mother, despite everything. A very small part, a part that Raven likes to ignore and bury deep within themselves where no one can see it. 

All of Raven loves their sister.

Sister. Apple White is their half-sister. They share a father, a father who Raven sees during the summer months and Apple sees the rest of the year, a father who they both think of very differently from the other. 

It isn’t exactly a secret, that Raven and Apple are related, that the king had an affair with the Evil Queen (it had to happen. Destiny said so). But no one talks about it. Probably because Raven was born to scorn Apple, and Apple was born to defeat Raven. Probably because they are the opposite of alike in the ways they dress, they act, they live.

(Raven and Apple share the same nose. The same forehead. The same dark eyebrows. Raven is the only one who seems to notice this.)

So, Raven has heart, even if everyone else thinks otherwise. And when Dexter Charming comes to them, and Raven realizes they could never love him, _can’t_ love him, because that’s not how Raven’s love works, they divert all the love they can toward their sister instead.

Apple may not want to talk about it. The world may look upon Raven as a demon, Apple as a saint. Snow White may turn up her nose at Raven on family visiting days.

But Raven has a sister who they will protect to the ends of the land and all other lands beyond it, who they will never poison because they could never bring themselves to do it, and they think Apple understands this, even if she doesn’t show it.

Just a little bit.

  
  



End file.
